Rhia loved the sand. It's coarse and rough, and it got right between her toes. The way it buffed out the cracks and patches of dry skin on her heels was therapeutic. A poor girl's pedicure, as she used to call it back in the day. She laughed at the thought. Back in the day of less than one whole year ago.

God, it felt so long. So long since she lived in blissful ignorance of her true identity. When she believed... when she was human.

She never thought she'd think back fondly on those days now that she knew the truth. Hindsight being twenty-twenty, she now saw that a lot of the questionable things Richard did was to control her actions and keep her on track for the Entity Program. From whom she was allowed to hang out with, what activities she could do after school, what she was allowed to do with her own brother... dating Church.

She had been so excited to finally be with someone that Richard and Madeline and Maddox all approved of at the same time. It was the first time that Mark didn't sneer at her every time he saw her. It was the closest she had ever been to her family. Even Richard.

What a horrifying thought.

Rhia buried her hands deeper, taking fistfuls of the damp sand, and rubbed it between her palms in a slow, methodical motion. The sand was right here, right now, just like she was. Looking back on the past never got her anywhere. That's how she always got in trouble. That's how she ended up in that habit of endless drinking after Nolan disappeared.

Here and now. The past didn't matter, because she couldn't change it. All she could do is look forward for the best outcome. Nolan was alive. That's all that mattered...

So why did it feel like no one else cared?

Three days had passed since meeting Priya the mimic. Or... as the Organization called her, Entity Sierra. For three days, Bastian and Atticus got her settled in a heavily secured safe house. She was technically a prisoner, but they needed to show her that they meant her no harm. They talked to her every day, but not so much as to overwhelm her again, and she was allowed to continue taking her medication under their supervision. A large sample had been sent to a trusted lab for testing and reverse engineering.

They refused to mention Nolan again. They kept saying that she probably didn't know anything. Rhia could have accepted that answer, but why wouldn't they just try?

To take her mind off it, she called her mother. Madeline decided she was going to stay in L.A for a while. She told Rhia that she hadn't realized how much she missed being back home and at her studio. So, she was going back to her old life full of art and teaching.

Nova was going back to Europe, though. The last time Maddox checked in, it was from a payphone in Spain, so he was probably still there somewhere. She wanted to at least be on the right continent when... if... he came back. She was also going to be stepping up to help Val in her training as a Lord of the Counsel, which freed up some of Atticus's time to focus on Priya and the Organization.

Speaking of Val, of all the people, she hadn't expected such a cold conversation from her or Cameron. She knew they were under tremendous pressure and stress, having so recently learned what Nolan truly was as well as trying to fix a crumbling kingdom, but... maybe she shouldn't have pushed so hard to talk to Aarón Guerrero...

Here. And. Now.

Rhia squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about the werewolf king... or Raphael Laurent... or Danika Schell, wherever that traitorous little bitch had run off to.

It. Didn't. Matter. What's done, was done.

She felt his presence long before she opened her eyes to look at him. If there was one thing she had learned in the last year, it was to recognize the dragon's way of announcing themselves by magic before coming into range of sight or sound.

Nekros kicked off his shoes and socks, rolled up the legs of his slacks, and sat next to her, copying her actions by digging his bare feet in the sand. He didn't say anything for a bit, and it brought the same kind of calm that she had grown accustomed to.

But it didn't feel right. She didn't want to be calm, and she didn't want him to be calm. She wanted him to be upset. To show that he was angry or disappointed. She waited for the scolding, or the yelling, or... anything she would have expected from Richard. The normal reaction to a father hearing—or, rather, not hearing—that his daughter didn't know if her life would have been better off without him.

But Nekros didn't yell. Not at her. Not once had he raised his voice in anger or frustration. Instead, he spoke in the same soft, empowering voice that she loved about him because it was the exact opposite of what Richard would have done. "Do you remember what I told you when we first met, right here on this beach?" he asked.

"Quin is a hypocritical dictator?" she tried to keep scowling, but when he laughed, she couldn't stop the small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"I told you that I had accepted that you were a grown woman, that nothing could bring back the time we should have been together as a family, and that I was happy with whatever kind of relationship you wanted." He sighed and rubbed at his neck. "I don't think I've done a very good job in upholding my own vow."

"Yeah, well, I also said I wanted someone to teach me how to be a dragon, and I haven't exactly been the best student."

"Stop deflecting. I am trying to apologize."

"There's nothing for you to apologize for!" Rhia let out a heavy sigh of her own and dropped the sand so she could pull her knees up to her chest. "It's a perfectly normal thing for a parent to have expectations of their kid. It's not your fault that I'm broken."

"You're not broken. You're just..." He hesitated, and she glanced sideways at him. Nekros stared out across the ocean, conflict and pain written in his expression. "Lysander told me you said the other day. How long have you been thinking like that?"

"A while. Since I talked to Kate... Kilo... whatever." Looking away again, she pulled her knees tighter into herself and let her forehead fall onto them. "I don't know who or what I am. I don't know who to believe. One of the entities says the Organization is using us as weapons, another says they're trying to help us. Either way, I... I think I was a hell of a lot closer to becoming Entity Charlie than any of us are willing to admit."

"I think you're underestimating yourself. Time is an incredible thing. Thirty years is a lifetime, and it's impossible for you to see just how much the future holds for you."

"If this is a 'you're too young to understand' speech, would you mind holding off another few days. Or weeks. Or forever? I wasn't in the mood for it when I was sixteen and human, and I'm certainly not in the mood for it now."

"It's not. The thirty years you have been on this earth, from egg, to hatchling, to the beautiful young woman you are now, you have done some incredible things. Things that neither I nor the other dragons could possibly imagine. The Organization is the reason you grew up in Los Angeles. They are the reason you grew up with the Kincaid's. But you made yourself what you are. In fact, let us ignore the Organization as a factor. Let's look at your life as you would have a year ago, when you believed you were abandoned by your birth family,"

"But you didn't. They-"

"That's not the point right now. That's what you thought at the time. You believed with every fiber of your being that your birth parents left you alone in an alley to die. That alone, adoption aside, would have been enough to turn anyone into a cynic. That there is no good in the world, and any brief flashes of it are just that.

"But not you. You grew up to be compassionate. You might find it takes a while to love someone, but once you do, you love with your whole being. When you hurt, it feels like you're breaking apart at the seams. When you're angry, you hold such wrath that it makes the world tremble at your feet, and yet you still cannot bring yourself to hurt a fly. The Organization didn't do that. That's all you."

"Madeline-"

"Is not one of them. She does not work with or for the Organization. She helped heal your wounds and nurtured your passions, but she is not responsible for who you are any more than I am. It's true, you would not have had the same life had you grown up under my care like you were supposed to. It is true that you likely would not have become a paramedic, and your experiences would have been different. But I don't think you would have ended up any less of a caring, passionate, inspiring adult. And I truly don't believe you would have ended up any more like me, or Phoenix, or any of the other dragons."

Slowly, Rhia uncurled herself to look at him. There was a line of tears on each cheek, but there was also a hesitantly hopeful smile playing on her lips. "Really?"

"Yes. Forget about everything except the circumstances in which you and I were born. I hatched on a molten rock, hurtling through space and time with nothing and no one except my sister and seven other dragons. You hatched in the nineties. The world has changed so much in the last three decades, let alone the five billion years span between our hatchings. Of course, you feel like there is nothing in common between yourself and the rest of us.

"The norm for dragonkin parents is to keep their hatchlings close to the nest for as long as possible. Even after they have awakened and are no longer so vulnerable, hatchlings typically remain in the communities they hatched because they know it's safe. I assumed you would be the same. I was not prepared for you to make it so difficult. I tried to keep you in the nest, and you would have none of it. The world was right there, ready to be explored, and you weren't about to let something like a lack of flight feathers get in your way."

Her shoulders started to shake from barely contained laughter, and Nekros felt his heart lighten at the sound and continued.

"I could have tried to keep you home and away from the rest of the world for as long as possible. I could have taught you that we and the kin should always take priority over anything else. But I know that if I looked away for even a second, you would have been halfway across the Aegean Sea. To mainland Greece, or to another one of the islands, or to Turkey or Egypt, and then beyond their borders and taken every experience you could in the best light possible. That's just what you've always done, Rhia. Nothing—not me, not the other dragons, not the Organization—could ever take that from you."

"I was that difficult as a kid, huh?"

"The absolute worst," he chuckled with gentle sarcasm and nudged her arm gently with his elbow. "I didn't get a single moment's rest after you hatched. Impossible to get you down for a nap. Any time I closed my eyes, you were off chasing butterflies when I opened them again."

She leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder. "You know," she sighed. "That's not bad for your first real fatherly speech."

"You can't give me all the credit. Madeline and Nolan helped."

"Nolan?"

"He is a father, too, and I... I will admit that I was worried about your choice of partner. I knew enough about him from a professional standpoint and as a vampire and a member of the Counsel. But I did not know him as a man. I knew even less of him when he was yfeerie. Most of his story, I didn't hear until after the fact."

"I'm assuming since you didn't tell me any of this, that you approve?"

"I would not have said anything whether I approved or not. So long as he doesn't bring you harm, it isn't my place to say who you can or cannot be with. I do approve, for your information. I don't think there's anyone better or more deserving of your love. That you are soulmates was only a surprise because of how rare it is. The point is, when we did talk, he told me something very important."

"What's that?"

"He told me that both of us—you and I—are a little broken. He told me that we both have a long way to go before everything starts to feel right. I forgot that when we were in the room with the mimic. That's why I needed to apologize."

Her lip trembled, and on came the waterworks once again despite how hard she tried to stop them. "I miss him. I miss him so fucking much, it fucking hurts."

"I know. We're going to find him. We're not going to stop until we bring him home."

Home. Rhia looked around at the house standing behind them. In the entire three days she'd been sitting on the beach, she hadn't gone inside once. So long as Nolan was "legally" dead, the house was in Cameron's name. It would technically be trespassing for her to just walk in, even though she still had a key.

No, that wasn't why she hadn't gone in and both she knew it.

Richard had made it impossible for her to feel completely at home with the Kincaid's. After wasting her inheritance on a useless private investigator in a desperate attempt to find her parents, she couldn't afford to live on her own while going to school.

When she lived with Church, she had moved into his apartment. They had planned to find something that was theirs eventually, but the salaries of two public service workers wasn't nearly enough to buy a house, or even a condo, on the L.A market. After they broke up, she lived with Maddox. It was a temporary solution until she got back on her feet. Of course, she had always been welcome, and would have been welcome to stay as long as she wanted. But it wasn't home.

Nolan had welcomed her in as easily as if she had always belonged there. He wasn't afraid to open his doors and his heart to her. From the beginning, it had always felt so right. Going back now had nothing to do with legality or technicalities. She was being a coward.

Right past those doors in the kitchen was where they had their first real date. Here, on the beach, he'd told her how old he was. The living room where they used to talk for hours, and where she met his family for the first time. The loft where they spent their nights and days tangled together in hours of passion and where he said he loved her for the first time. That patio... how many nights had she slept there because of the nightmares?

So many firsts were carved into those walls. Never once had she voiced it, but she always dreamed that when everything was over, they would come back to this house and start their life together. He probably knew that. He'd always known her better than she knew herself. This place was more home to her than anywhere else in the world. But it wasn't home without Nolan.

"I know there's probably no point," she said slowly. "But I want to go to the last facility on the list. Even if there's nothing there, it's the only thing we have. Maybe... maybe they left something behind."

"I agree. If nothing else, it will give Atticus and Bastian time to speak with Priya."

"They already told me they aren't going to ask. She could know everything about them and where to find Nolan, and they aren't even going to bother trying."

"Rhia," Nekros watched her carefully, and tried to keep his voice gentle. She was fragile and teetered on the edge of another emotional breakdown. But her determination hadn't wavered, and he needed to make sure she understood that she wasn't alone. "They are not going to ask about Nolan directly. No matter how you look at it, it is highly unlikely that she knows anything about him. But she is far more likely to know about how we can find more facilities, or who is working for the Organization, or something else that will lead us in the right direction."

That perked her up, making her look back at him with cautious hope in her eyes. "I'm asking too much of people, aren't I?"

"You're scared. Fear brings out the worst and most irrational in all creatures. No one has given up on him or you. We all have our skills, and we all have our own parts to play."

"Thank you," she leaned into him again. "I'm... probably going to need you to remind me of that a few times."

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and Nekros was determined to enjoy the moment before he broached the next difficult conversation. As selfish as it was, he felt downright ecstatic that Rhia was allowing him to comfort her like a father would. It was a small gesture, a small step forward, and it was a sign that, despite this tragedy, they were still family. No matter how strange their family might be.

But all moments had to end, and he sighed. "Ares told me you were asking about Erebus."

"I was," she shrugged. "It's okay. Keoni already gave me the speech. It was stupid, anyway. Nolan never talked about his dragonkin family, so I don't know why I thought asking about them would make me feel better."

"It wasn't anything of the sort. It's our fault for not speaking of it before, even if Nolan did not want to. It is a sensitive subject, particularly for Quin, so it would be wise not to mention it in front of him. But Ares was concerned that Keoni wasn't clear on the matter."

"Erebus broke a bunch of dragon laws, but the dragons couldn't kill him, so he had to be sealed away. He was pretty clear."

"But he did not tell you which laws he broke, and why we had no choice. I know it does not feel it at times, but there are very few hard laws that the nine of us all agreed upon and impose on other breeds. It may take some time for you to understand, but one day you will be expected to uphold these laws as well."

"It doesn't feel right, anymore. It was one thing when I thought he was gone. But now that I know he's still alive... If he didn't want to talk about his family, then it just feels wrong talking about it behind his back."

"I know. But you pride yourself on withholding judgment until you know the whole story. So, let me tell you the whole story. You need to truly understand why Erebus can never be released from his prison, even if you feel like there is nothing left to do. He is a terrible danger, not just to us, but to the world as we know it."

She didn't answer for a few minutes as she considered what he told her. He called her out on exactly what she had already been thinking. Despite Keoni's warning, she had been keeping the idea in her back pocket just in case. "Okay," she said quietly. "Tell me."

"Nolan's transition was devastating to Erebus. As it would be for any parent or grandparent. Lysander knows the finer details, as they were so close once. But the long and short of it is that Erebus spent two thousand years searching for a cure, and he had no faith that the dragons would even try.

"He despised Quin and Luna, for they had already failed Nolan and his mother too many times. He did not trust Phoenix, or me by extension, due to the issues borne of his time as her student. Ozin and Tiamat kept too much to themselves, even back then, Ares was too close to Quin, and Valkyr had too much distaste for the other breeds, even if Nolan was once a kin. So, Erebus sought help and guidance from the other breeds. As I understand it, he found a rogue cult of necromancers."

"Wait... it's possible to bring someone back to life?"

"No," Nekros's tone turned sharp, and she flinched. Instant regret flooded his expression, and he started rubbing at the scar on his neck. "Sorry. No, what is dead cannot return to the land of the living. Not entirely, anyway. Not in the way you might imagine or hope. But that doesn't stop people from trying. We, the other dragons and I, have watched all breeds try to conquer the hold of death. It can be delayed and avoided. But once death has you, there is no escape. The consequences for trying are devastating. So, we vowed to eradicate all and any who try."

"What happens?"

"A skilled sect with the right materials with luck on their side could, possibly, breathe life into a body within a certain amount of time after death. But that is not bringing someone back to life. You are left with a living body, and nothing else. The alchemists called them homunculi.

"It's cruel. Perhaps not to the homunculi, as they are little more than a shell. But to the ones who loved the person who the body belonged to prior to their death, it causes the worst pain. Without a soul, the body is nothing. It will not feed itself, it will not care for itself, and it does not have the capacity to learn to do so. It will need to be cared for at all hours of the day and night, and it will never show signs of acknowledgement. If left alone, they will wither away to nothing."

"For some people, that's enough," Rhia muttered without much conviction. It was an ethical question often given to healthcare professionals. For a patient in a vegetative state or on life support... at what point was death more merciful? It was way above her paygrade as a paramedic.

"True," Nekros nodded sadly. "But for many, it's not. Which is why the natural progression of the experiments gravitated towards bringing a soul back to life or, perhaps worse, creating an artificial soul."

A sick, nauseating feeling crept through her stomach, and she slowly looked up at him. He, too, looked uncomfortable and continued to rub his neck. "Is that possible?"

"No. Souls are the purest form of magic. Creation of magic, if possible, is beyond our understanding as living beings. Understanding how we use our magic and creating different branches of practice passed between cultures and family lines is not the same as truly creating it. But they tried, and what they created..." he paused, shaking his head. "They did not create a soul. From what we were able to recover and understand, they pulled fragments of existing souls and fused them together before shoving them into the homunculi.

"What they created was nothing short of monstrous. It was nothing any of us had ever seen before. A twisted, broken creature with no sense of self or purpose. It was hungry. So it hunted. But nothing satisfied its hunger, so it never stopped. It had the magical capabilities of dragons, elves, shifters... at times, it showed vague hints of potential personalities, but it could not be reasoned with.

"We destroyed the creature and the necromancers that created it. In doing so, we discovered that they didn't just make one. There were hundreds of them. Not all were like the first. Not all ravaged the land, killing all that got in their way. But all of them were suffering. Killing them released the fragments of souls back into the aether where they belonged. And it was then that we decided that the practice would not continue. Since then, as soon as we hear whisper of a necromancy cult, they are destroyed.

"Regardless of one's faith, the soul does exist and it is a precious thing. They form slowly and are never truly whole until they are combined with a body that is made for it. And even when fed on by demons, they never truly fade away. We have no idea what kind of damage shoving fragments into an ill-suited body did. I suppose we will never know."

"So... who was Erebus trying to bring back to life?"

"We don't know. Lysander was the one who called for our aid. Erebus was in Atlantis, working with the cult and had already begun the ritual. Lysander had tried to talk sense into him. And for his efforts, Erebus tried to kill him."

"Oh my god..."

"Erebus could not be reasoned with. Any chance they gave him to see the light, he took to his advantage and struck again. He saw any attempt to stop him as evidence of us plotting against him and his family. It took the combined efforts of Phoenix, Lysander, Quin, and Ares to seal Erebus on the island and sink it to keep anyone from attempting to release him.

"If he is still alive down there, he has spent the last eighteen-thousand years in complete isolation with nothing but his hatred for the dragons and fear for his family to keep him occupied. If we released him, and if he allowed us to explain, he would not take it well. He would blame us. If he did not try to kill us all again, he would burn the rest of the world to find Nolan. I know you love him, Rhia. But millions of innocents would die if Erebus was set free. Would you be willing to live with that, even if it meant getting him back?"

Closing her eyes, she shook her head. Nekros's arm around her shoulders flexed, and she realized that she was shivering. "Thank you," she tried to crack a smile. "I'll take 'set the maniac free' off my list of ideas."

"Thank you," he chuckled. "Do me a favor and don't tell Quin I told you any of this."

"Yeah, because Quin and I talk all the time," she rolled her eyes. "No offense to your sister, or anything, but between him and Constantine, Luna has shit taste in men."

"I couldn't agree more."

The way he snarled that last sentence made Rhia tense and look up. Nekros's lip was curled, and his eyes were turned north. She followed his gaze, and instantly understood. None other than Quintiles Drakos himself was flying towards them with Ares, Lysander, and Luna flying close behind.

This wasn't good.

~