The sun hung high in the cloudless sky, radiating its brilliance across the island of Atlantis. It was unusually hot for so early in the spring. It should have been a sign of good fortune and high crop yields. Farmers could break ground early and get ahead of planting. That was the case for many of the provinces.

But for the northwestern tip of the island, from where the sloping foothills grew into the peaks of the mountainous drop-offs, the sun could not penetrate the darkness of that day.

Kalidas, eldest son of Auxentius and Helvia, was dead. He was laid to rest as the sun rose, and when the sun set that same night, Kalidas's only son, Erebus, was presented to the world as the new Lord of the Nolan Cliffs.

The shock of his death could be felt through the entirety of the island. Kalidas had not been an old man by any means, and the magical bond he shared with his wife had given him a youthfulness that men his age envied. He should have lived for decades longer than what would normally be expected of a human.

It was an accident, and no one saw it coming. Yet the world around them kept spinning. Life had to go on.

Lady Ainsley, Kalidas's loyal dragonkin wife, did not leave the caves that housed the family's resting place for ten days after his sarcophagus was sealed in the tomb. Erebus did not have the heart to try and make her when he, too, was still reeling from the shock and grief of losing his father.

He wasn't ready. He knew that. He was only four and twenty, five years younger than Kalidas when he ascended. But Kalidas had practically been ruling in his father's stead for a decade prior, due to Auxentius having five other children to raise. He had the benefit of having someone looking over his shoulder before officially inheriting the title.

Kalidas hadn't wanted that for him when, by all appearances, he would be around for a long time. Now, Erebus would have to learn on the fly and completely alone.

"Doctor Wes?"

Lily's voice pulled Nolan out of his memories, grounding him back to the reality that was somehow even more painful and lonely than the day he'd lost his father. The memories were beginning to encroach on the times he was awake. That wasn't good.

"Sorry," he mumbled, scrubbing his face with his hands and trying to bring his focus back. His hair was getting long, and he desperately needed to shave. It was getting harder and harder to stay motivated enough to shower, let alone keep up with that level of personal grooming. "What were we talking about?"

"The Opet Festival," she answered slowly. "You just stopped talking and spaced out. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he lied and shook his head again. He hadn't thought about his father's funeral in thousands of years, but now he could see the opening to the family tomb and hear his mother's sobs as if he was right there. "The festival... You want to know about the year the Macedonian King came to Waset, right?"

"Yes," Lily's momentary concern vanished to be replaced with cautious excitement, and she scootched her stool closer to the glass. "Alexander the Great. What was he like?"

"We weren't close. I don't think I ever spoke to him beyond introductions. The only time I was around him was when he had business with Constantine or Iset."

"Constantine Moureaux, the vampire king. And... who was Iset?"

Shit. He didn't mean to mention her. Since he started telling Lily what he could remember about Ancient Egypt, he'd been careful not to say anything about himself on a personal level. Up to that point, it hadn't been hard. Lily wasn't interested in his personal life. She'd actually been disappointed to hear that his involvement in politics at the time was fairly minimal.

"She was the leader of a local shifter pride."

"Okay," she said slowly, her eyes narrowing in confusion. "But why would you be there when she spoke with Alexander?"

"Mediation. I was a neutral third party who spoke multiple languages who could assist in communication."

"But... no, you couldn't have been. You weren't a part of Alexander's inner circle and you're an ancient, but you're not Egyptian either. Neither side would have seen you as either neutral or a trustworthy third party to observe-"

"She was my wife, okay?"

Fuck. He had hoped to move on before he dug himself deeper. But Lily was a dog with a bone when she found a historical inconsistency, and he was too tired to keep dodging. What did it matter, anyway? Iset was long dead. And while she had been a bold and powerful shifter, often regarded as a chosen vessel of Sekhmet's wrath and compassion, great leaders were not remembered for simply maintaining the status quo.

She cared for her people with fearless resilience, but she did not expand her territory, nor did she have to fight off more than the usual land disputes with other prides. She did not bring them into a golden age, nor did she allow them to fall into poverty. Her name appeared in a single hieroglyph carving that was now safeguarded and on display in Cairo, but nobody cared because all the focus was on the man that conquered the world.

The descendants of her pride still lived in modern-day Luxor, but she was only ever mentioned as a cautionary tale; her ancient and sacred bloodline ended with her because she chose to mate with a vampire. She chose a man that could not give her children. The only way Iset truly lived on was through Nolan's memories of her.

"You're married?" Lily asked, looking even more confused and flipping through her notebook. "I thought you were... weren't you dating one of the dragons?"

"Iset died thousands of years before Rhia was even born. I have never been unfaithful to the women in my life!"

Nolan stood up sharply, turning away from Lily so he could walk off some of the frustration starting to coil in his muscles, only to find that the sterile white walls had been replaced with rolling green hills and the iron-grey rock of the mountains. Desperately, he tried to hold onto his current place in time but lost his grip when he heard her voice.

"Erebus."

He couldn't help but smile when he turned to see Theo walking towards him. She was still wearing her black mourning silks like he was. In contrast, however, was the bright white fabric that held a precious bundle to her chest. She was also carrying a basket in one hand, but Erebus ignored it entirely so he could pull back the edge of the wrap to get a better look at their three-week-old daughter.

Little Demetria was the spitting image of her mother's side of the family with her wisps of golden blonde hair and chubby pink cheeks. Her eyes, however, were entirely from her father. Bright blue.

Theo had gone through a human labor a month earlier than expected, and their child had been born small and in a human body. She was much too young for anyone to know if she had inherited magic from the dragonkin side of her family. Erebus simply didn't care. Demetria was perfect in every way. The day of her birth had scared him shitless, but now he fully believed her early arrival was a gift from the gods. At least Kalidas got to meet his granddaughter before he passed.

"I brought you something to eat," Theo prompted gently, raising the basket. "There is enough for your mother and grandfather if they are up for joining us."

Erebus sighed and looked back towards the cave. His maternal grandfather had arrived on the island seven days ago and had spent the last six of them in the cave with Ainsley. It was the first time the dragons hadn't been up in arms about his presence, which was a miracle in itself. For once, perhaps, the elites saw the futility in the ongoing cold war between Soliel and The Western Sky. Maybe it was just out of respect for their fellow kin, or for Kalidas himself. Erebus didn't know, but he was grateful for the momentary ceasefire.

Likely hearing Theo's arrival, and therefore saving his grandson from coming up with an excuse, the elder Erebus of the Western Sky, emerged from the cave in his human form. There were shadows under his eyes, and his normally bulky form looked deflated and small.

He greeted the small family with hugs that were always gentle and tender, particularly with a fragile babe in the middle. Then he met Theo's eyes with a glimmer of hope and asked, "May I hold her?"

To which Theo beamed and transferred the swaddled Demetria into the wyvern's arms. The contrast of the massive, stone-faced man against his tiny, fragile great-grandchild was astonishing and heartwarming. There was nothing and no one was more important to him than family. Human, kin, bound by blood or honor, he didn't care. Family was family.

"Hey!" Lily slapped her hands repeatedly against the glass, trying desperately to get Nolan's attention again. He was standing, partially facing her, but swaying dangerously, and his eyes were unfocused and beginning to glow while little sparks of electricity danced across his body. Something wasn't right, but she didn't want to set off the alarms. Not that the medical team could or would help. They would just take advantage of his state to take samples they weren't supposed to have.

"You're taking her away?" Theo asked in shock, looking between her husband and his grandfather.

"I'm taking her home," the elder Erebus corrected softly. He did not look happy with his decision but spoke with the same certainty as he always did. "Back to the nesting grounds where she and the rest of her siblings hatched. Her bond with the dragons has already been severed from her grief. I do not trust Soliel or Luna to be a comfort to her, so she must come home to be with her family."

The younger Erebus didn't miss the way his grandfather's golden eyes slid to watch his reaction. He was not offended either by the cautionary look or the words that were said. He knew what he meant, and he was right. There was very little he could offer his mother without access to his magic, which was over a decade away from awakening. Even if he could shift and link to Ainsley on a magical level, the support her brothers and sisters could provide would be much greater.

"Well then," Theo swallowed hard and set her shoulders back in pure determination. "We'll come too."

"We can't go, Theo." The younger Erebus took her hand and squeezed. "It is a long journey, and Demetria is too little."

"She is your mother, Erebus," Theo insisted. "We are as much her family as any of the dragonkin."

"Of course, we are. We are not abandoning her, nor is she abandoning us. But there is not much we can do for her now. I cannot avoid the advisors for much longer, and every minute I am free of them must be spent on caring for you and Demetria. My grandfather, aunts, uncles, and cousins can give mother the care she needs. But they cannot come here. So, she must be brought to them. I will awaken and regain my wings by the time Demetria is grown, and we can make the journey together."

Theo's bottom lip trembled, and tears glistened in her eyes, but she sucked in a breath and refused to let them fall. Demetria began to squirm and whine, and the elder Erebus leaned down to return her to Theo. "Take her to Ainsley so she can say goodbye," he said gently. "We will be leaving before the sun rises tomorrow."

Theo nodded and walked towards the caves without saying anything. The elder waited until she was out of earshot before speaking quietly to his grandson. "You haven't told her."

It wasn't a question. It wasn't even an accusation. Just a statement.

"I don't plan to tell her," Erebus's voice was quiet as he tilted his head back to look at the impossibly bright clear sky. "Not now."

"Erebus," there was a warning growl in his grandfather's tone. "Kalidas and Ainsley did not raise you to be a dishonest man. Theo is right; she is family. She has a right to know."

"My mother loved my father so much that she entwined her heart and soul with his upon their mating. Without him, she will not live beyond the year. Taking her back to your nesting grounds may give her enough time for the rest of the family to say goodbye, but it will not be enough to save her. I am not enough to save her. Why would I want to subject my wife to that pain after everything that has happened?"

"Theophane swore under the eyes of the gods that would stand by your side through the greatest of storms. How is she supposed to do that when she does not know the storm you face?"

"And I swore before the same gods that I would protect her by any means. In a few years, when Demetria is more independent, when I have established my place among the rest of the nobles, and when I am able to be there for her grief, I will tell her."

The elder Erebus was still talking, his voice getting further and further away, but he didn't hear anything. The world around him suddenly fractured, splitting into pieces like a broken mirror.

How many times had he told himself that he would tell Theo that Ainsley had died? How many times did he talk himself out of it? So he wouldn't have to see her pain... or so he wouldn't have to reopen his own wounds?

In the end it didn't matter. He never told her. And then she was gone. He never stopped looking for her and Demetria, even long after both would have died from old age. Twenty thousand years later, they were still lost to him.

Lost.

He was lost.

He wouldn't survive another twenty thousand years. He wouldn't survive another four months. What was the point in holding on, then?

Nolan didn't feel the hard ground when he collapsed. His chest hurt as energy with nowhere to go built up in his body and stretched his ribs beyond their natural limits. He was cold, too. But he wasn't shivering. There was a beautiful kind of finality to the cold.

Opening his eyes, he hoped to see Theo's face one more time, only to have the blurry image of two people standing on the other side of a glass wall swimming in front of him. Both were shouting at him, but neither of them was Theo. Whatever they were saying was garbled and made no sense to him. He just didn't care anymore.

Except... the taller one... the green of his eyes was so familiar.

His heart suddenly kicked hard against his chest, and a violent heat rushed through him. Hotter than fire, yet instead of burning him, he felt more alive than he had in centuries. The blurry green eyes came into sharp focus and the black pupils elongated into slits. A dragon's roar rang in his ears, blocking out everything else except for a voice he's been craving to hear for weeks.

"I'm going to find you. If I have to burn this world to the ground to do it, Nolan, I will bring you home."

Nolan shot straight up, sucking in a breath and immediately started coughing. A searing pain sliced through his head that came with the lack of oxygen.

"Asshole!" Maddox barked, his voice coming back into sharp focus, and slamming his fist against the glass. "The hell is your problem trying to die on me?!"

Nolan raised his middle finger towards the glass.

"Yeah, fuck you too, buddy. This is what I get for giving a shit!"

Maddox turned on his heel and continued to rant the whole way back out of the containment area. Lily was trembling slightly, watching him leave, and turned back to Nolan when the door slammed shut. There were tears glistening in her brown eyes, and she was leaning more of her weight into the thick glass. "What... What was that?" she asked shakily.

Nolan took a moment before answering. The stinging in his chest was subsiding quickly, as was the heat from Rhia's magic. He knew it had been her. It couldn't have been anything or anyone else. He just wasn't sure how it happened. They were, for all intents and purposes, millions of miles apart. A link, perhaps? Something only she could have done because of their bond as soulmates?

It didn't really matter, though. He got the confirmation he needed. Rhia was looking for him. She hadn't given up. So, neither could he. No more counting the hours down to losing containment, and no more moping around waiting to be saved. He needed to do everything in his power to get the fuck out of here.

"I'm fine," he told Lily, standing up and looking around at the red lights flashing around both sides of the chamber. "What's with the light show?"

"Your heart stopped," Lily gaped up at him. "You were dead."

"I only get lights when I die? Not important enough for a full code blue?"

He chuckled at his morbid joke. Rhia would have laughed and retorted with something with equal sass. But Lily bit her lip and looked away in almost embarrassment. "You're a DNR," she muttered. "You've been determined too dangerous to approach during a medical emergency, so... so most of the alarms have been disconnected from the life-support monitoring systems."

"They'd rather learn what they can from my dead body than risk the lives of the doctors. Makes sense, I guess."

"Are you... okay?"

Nolan stopped his pacing and looked down at Lily, his mind going back to the note left in Rhia's book. Maddox believed that Lily could be swayed to their side with time. He hadn't put much effort into applying any of his 'charm', as Maddox put it, because he was so wrapped up in his own misery.

Though his body thrummed with a new energy, Nolan forced himself to sit down, so he could meet Lily's eyes on her level. "I didn't mean to scare you," he said gently. "I can't tell you why it's happening. But going forward I'll tell you if I'm having a good or bad day. You don't have to be here when I have another episode."

"Why can't you tell me? What are these episodes."

"Why did you join the Organization, Lily?"

Her eyes widened at the question, and she looked away quickly, sucking her bottom lip between her teeth and started to tug at the ends of her sweater.

"You know what they're doing here is wrong," Nolan continued. "You're not a bad person. You don't look at the ancients and see us as monsters. So how can you ignore all that's going on here?"

"It's the only way I can live with myself," she whispered so quietly he almost didn't hear her.

The silence hung between them. Slowly, Lily brought her feet up on her chair and wrapped her arms around her knees, curling into herself and looking more and more like a child with every moment that passed.

"My dad as AML," she continued after a while. "They caught it early when I was in high school and put him on an aggressive treatment plan. It worked. It nearly killed him, and the medical bills completely wiped out their savings, but it worked. They had to sell the house, both their cars, take out loans... I begged them to use my college funds, but they refused.

"It came back two years ago. He started treatment again. But he didn't respond this time. It was killing him faster than it was killing the cancer. They were drowning in debt. I wasn't making much, but they still wouldn't take my money.

"The Organization approached me when the doctors gave my dad a month to live. They asked me to sign a five-year employment contract, and in return they would clear my parents' medical debt and promised to cure my dad. I thought they were some kind of private medical company that was trying to incorporate magic into human medicine. I didn't care what they wanted with a historian. I just signed the papers."

"Lily," Nolan said, keeping his voice patient and gentle. "AML can't be cured by magic. Human medicine is the only-"

"I know. Trust me, I know. We talked to every oncologist, every cancer cytogeneticist and molecular pathologist, and every healer from every ancient breed that would see us, and they all told us the same thing. We were already doing everything we could, and he was still dying.

"The Organization treated him two days after I signed those papers and then gave me six months before calling me to fulfill my end of the deal. One treatment and in six months my dad was healthier than he was before his original diagnosis.

"I know none of this is right. I know that avoiding those parts of the files and pretending that you're here voluntarily isn't going to save me from going to hell. But my dad is alive. When I call home, I get to hear his voice. When I'm finally allowed to go home, I won't be going home to his grave. I'd do it again, too. Every single time, I would do the same thing. Wouldn't you if it were your parents?"

He knew his answer without any hesitation. "Yeah, I would." Nolan chuckled despite himself and sighed. "If I could have saved my father, both my parents would still be alive."

Lily's brow furrowed. Before she said anything, the door opened. "Doctor Smith," Maddox called, his tone taking on a much more professional tone than before. "Session's over. Let's go."

Lily only hesitated for a moment before scrubbing her face dry with the sleeve of her sweater and gathered her notebooks and laptop. Nolan barely noticed as a shudder of predatory awareness rippled down his spine. He knew, though he could never explain how he knew, that just on the other side of that door was none other than Richard Kincaid.

Nolan didn't need to be a vampire to feel the bloodlust for that man coursing through his veins. The next chance he he was going to rip Richard's throat out. Exactly what he should have done the first time they met.

~

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