July, 2019

Ben and I didn't say much when he reappeared the next morning... though the unsaid was written all over his face and mine. I could tell he wanted to pry, to ask why my eyes were puffy as though I'd cried myself to sleep.

Instead, he pretended he saw nothing at all, asking about who was coming that evening.

Unlike Lukas's indifference, I knew Ben's wasn't because he didn't care... but that he didn't want to make the ache that was to come even worse.

Which made my heart throb even more at the thought of facing tomorrow without him.

We exchanged small talk over breakfast, with me making little effort to hide our conversation. Faye stared at me in disbelief and the spot Ben sat, having already been briefed on everything by Jade. Her head whipped back and forth between us as she demanded to know what he was saying. Apparently even in the mutant world, engaging with ghosts was a story belonging to books.

Eventually Ben bid us goodbye, and I was alone again, left to face the day ahead in what I assumed would be a long, boorish slog with nothing on my agenda.

Yet as I plotted around cleaning this and that to distract myself, my alarm sounded, indicating it was time to get ready and head over to the Hammersmith house.

My stomach knotted with every step we took—the Sirens by my side, of course—closer to the location of the séance.

While Ben was assured that his absence would be the very cure to the rift between me and Lukas, I was adamant that my hopes were doomed to die alongside Ben as he relinquished to his final death.

When we walked into the foyer of the house, it was packed with people, filling me with relief to see the turnout for Ben. Those I had met before, those I hadn't, and even—

"Stephen!" I exclaimed as my eyes locked on him in the crowd.

"Olivia!" he gushed, rushing over to me before pulling me into a warm embrace. "I came at once after Erica told me the news."

A small knot wove in my stomach as Marli's warning echoed in my mind.

There are many rumours of how ghosts haunt people though... For all Lukas's parents know, I could be a medium. There's no way they'd assume Anjea still exist, I tried to reassure myself.

"I want to ask why you didn't tell me when you saw me, but I also understand why you might have wanted to keep that underwraps." He glanced around the room, and I with him.

Neither of us found a sight of Lukas, and I couldn't help but sigh.

"Is he here right now?" Stephen then asked.

I shook my head. "Ben said he will appear only when the séance begins. We've... spent little time together in the past two days. He's trying to acclimatise me for what's to come."

"I understand."

We stood quietly for a few moments as both of us seemed to long for more time with Ben. But how could we lament when he was technically already gone, and Oran's soon-to-be-spell was a gift to all who weren't me, stuck with him in my head the past few months.

Eventually Stephen pulled me into the room, engaging me in mindless chit chat as we killed time.

Until finally, "Please make a circle," Oran called out, his voice booming through the lower level of the house.

We ushered into the living area, cramping into every corner we could as we sat around the large casting circle that was embellished with all sorts of items—and in the centre, his mother's ring he had always intended to give me one day.

As my eyes zeroed in on it sitting on the chalked floorboards, an emptiness started to fill me and fantasies of what could have been for him, for me, for us, filled my head. I regretted how we turned out. Even more, I regretted the relief I felt that I wasn't locked into such a future with him. That I was available now for...

For a person who didn't want me. For a person who still was not here.

As I glanced around the room seeking out his honey eyes, suddenly I was met by familiar blue ones.

A small smile pulled at my mouth as I breathed a mournful, "Hi."

"Hey," he sighed, tone just as remorseful.

Heads turned and looked at the spot I stared, and quickly following were whispers of, "Is he really there? Why can't I see him? Has the spell started?"

Yet calling everyone to a silence was Oran's voice resonating through the room once more, yet this time in a foreign tongue I couldn't understand as he recited the spell we had tested yesterday. He touched the totems around the casting circle, stopping only to light the candle in the middle as he spoke the last of the incantation.

Ben stood up from his spot by my side then strolled to the centre of the casting circle.

A light started to emit from around him.

Then, "Oh my gosh!" Erica was the first to gasp. She leapt to her feet and ran towards his apparition.

Hand reaching for him, she fell empty.

And watching the disappointment etch into her face, I was reminded of the first time I saw him again.

This whole time I could have eased their pain. If only I had told people sooner...

Stephen was next to join her side, then Loren, Jayce, Jade, Ivan

My head tilted down in shame as I found myself unable to watch the joy of those relishing in seeing their friend once more. Their son once more.

I kept him from them.

I took him from them.

If I had never come into the picture, they'd still have him.

It's my fault.

It's my—

A hand grasping mine tightly pulled me from the labyrinth of my mind and back into the dim room.

The crowd still gushed around Ben as final messages were exchanged and greetings and goodbyes were had.

So my head slowly turned to the figure beside me who had pulled me from my well of woe.

Two familiar honey eyes stared back at me, a concoction of emotions swirling through them. But I couldn't bring myself to decipher them because—

He's here. He's finally here.

His hand squeezed mine once more in reassurance, and I almost broke. Why does he keep turning up when I'm at my worst?

Our moment of silent exchanges were cut short though when Ben's voice halted. Multiple heads had whipped our way, following the ghost's direction.

As I glanced at the group huddling around him, I noticed attention wavering—Ben to Lukas to me to Ben.

It was written all over their expressions. Who would speak first? Who would react first? What would the reaction be?

I, of course, knew what Ben would say having been privy to his peace in his death. Though Lukas... Lukas who had spent days bad-mouthing Ben to find he was by us the whole time... Lukas whose relationship with Ben had already been treading on thin ice when he was still alive...

"Long time no see," Ben broke the silence first. The crowd parted—as if it mattered—as Ben approached us. Crouching on the ground, he continued, "I've missed you."

"How? From what I hear, you've been stalking my every move."

Ben cracked a smile with no malice, all the while Lukas dropped my hand and forced a scowl.

How can he smile at that face? Clearly Lukas isn't ready to drop the hostility. Why poke an angry bear?

"I have some confessions I would like to make if you would all listen to them," Ben said to the room instead of responding to Lukas. Nonetheless, he never broke eye contact with the vampire.

"Of course," Erica eventually said after a pregnant pause. "If it's the closure you need."

Ben sat down on the other side of Lukas, which encouraged everyone else to rejoin the circle. All the while Lukas shifted closer to me.

My heart sang in delight while woes plagued my thoughts.

"The first thing I would like to say is sorry. Sorry that I lied to you all... but in particular, I'm sorry I lied to you, Lukas. And I'm sorry for what I did to you." Ben's blue gaze burned into Lukas's face, but Lukas kept his gaze fixated forward.

I wanted to be brave and grab his hand like he had mine, but the fear of rejection ran louder in my core.

"What did you lie about?" Jade prompted.

"I... haven't been honest with you all about my full... identity. You see, I wasn't just a vampire."

A few gasps sounded through the room and whispered wonders quickly followed in the pause as Ben glanced at his father for approval. Stephen gave a slight encouraging nod towards his son.

"As you know, my dad's a vampire and my mum was a human. That is, until one day my mother found a woman on the beach." He continued to narrate the story he told me, of the woman, of the birth, of the death, of the siren's gifts that were eventually passed along to him.

"So... you're a triton?" Faye eventually asked when Ben finished the story.

"I... am."

When I glanced over at Stephen, his expression was one of relief—as if he too had waited for the day Ben felt comfortable admitting it. Though when I looked at Lukas... he glared at Ben with heavy scepticism, as if waiting for the final blow to come.

"Why the heck would you hide that?" Serena demanded.

"Because... I felt guilty."

"About?" Erica probed, sounding much more caring than the others.

Ben took a deep breath before he blurted, "I tried using my luring abilities before and I didn't want to confess I had because I wasn't ready to be honest about my feelings in fear of rejection."

The crowd went silent as Ben turned to look at Lukas.

"He always had a charm casted to block my advances."

There were a few shocked gasps—from those who apparently didn't know of Ben's crush on Lukas—but most seemed unfazed.

It was Jayce who spoke next. "Did you know, Lukas?"

Lukas was quick to shake his head.

"Then why did you use an anti-luring ch—"

"Because those damn sirens are always playing their stupid tricks. I had to keep up my defences around them."

Serena, Faye, and Theodora let out guilty giggles as they batted their eyelashes. Then Theodora said, "Sorry, Lukas. I just always found you super cute and wanted you to myself. But when the others found out I couldn't even use my luring skills to make you mine, it became a bit of a competition."

"Fucking sirens," Lukas growled before turning away from Ben and everyone. Though as he turned, our eyes met, and the anger disappeared, this time replaced with more despair. "Did you know?"

I shook my head. "Not when he was alive. Though he admitted it not long after I came back here. After..."

I glanced over at Serena, and her eyes were quickly widening as she made the same realisation. "Ben's the Triton," she whispered.

Lukas cocked an eyebrow as Ben tilted his head in shame.

"You knew about him?" Lukas then pressed Serena.

"I knew there was a Triton somewhere in London. I never sensed his magic on you because you've been blocking it, but... I sensed it on Ollie."

Lukas's head then whipped towards me again, and I threw him a sad smile before I said, "Ben... I think it's time you tell him instead of dragging this out."

"Tell me what?" Lukas scooted out of the circle, looking at both of us like we'd burned him.

"Olivia... never should have fallen for me. In fact, she wouldn't have... if I hadn't made her."

The silence in the room was deafening as all of us studied Lukas's face. He tried to not react. But the composure he had been holding until now—

"You mean all of this... all the pain I've gone through thinking she and I weren't meant to be... Thinking that—"

"Was my fault. I used my magic to lure her in while she was vulnerable and missing you," he confirmed Lukas's assumptions.

"But... why her? Did you like her that much when you met her, or..."

Lukas's suspicions were creeping in as he was desperate to hear it was just fate that tore us apart. That Ben wouldn't say...

"Because I wanted you to let her go so that I'd have a chance. I knew about you two, Lukas. I sought Olivia out with purpose, out of jealousy, and tried to tear you two apart. I never meant for it to go on forever... but I fell in love with her. I let my greed and guilt guide me as I took her—for what was supposed to be permanently—away from you. Yet even after my spells, even after the bond, she still ended up wanting you the moment you were back in the picture. Which was why... death seemed like the easiest way out of the hellscape I had created."

"You mean," Loren whispered, "You intentionally died?"

I glanced at the faces around the room, all marred with shock. Except Stephen's. Except Lukas's.

"I did. It was the punishment I deserved... and the only way to bring Lukas and Olivia back together where they belonged."

"And look how that worked out," Lukas tutted.

Though Ben smiled in response. "You were temporarily apart... but the only reason I'm ready to move on is because you're back to where you were when I got in the way in the library that day."

"Their bond is broken, Ben," Jade said quietly when no one said anything, as if regretful to inform him.

Lukas and I said nothing, looking everywhere and anywhere but each other. Though as my eyes brushed past Erica...

"I knew it!" she exclaimed. "Your bond has come back, hasn't it?"

"That's not possible!" someone whispered.

"How can this happen?" another said.

Avoiding Erica's questions, I then looked to Lukas as my only solution. How could we quell the questions? In what way would he shut down their excitement... or mine?

Though when my eyes met Lukas's face, he was already staring at me, expectantly. "Did you know all this too?"

"Only after Ben told me he was a triton."

He nodded for a few moments before grumbling, "Great. Just great. So the whole time as we gallivanted across Europe, not only did you lie to me about seeing his ghost, but you also hid the extent he had fucked with us. Anything else you want to confess, Olivia?"

Yet rather than giving me any option to present my case, he stood up and stormed off up the stairs and up to his room.

A part of me wanted to chase after him.

Another wanted to flee the scene entirely.

But holding me back from any of it was Ben.

It's your last chance to see him... Don't waste it.

So I took a steady breath and looked back at his whirling blue eyes.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

I shook my head. "Better than me trying to keep that quiet forever."

His lips pursed, and a chilling silence filled the room.

Until Erica broke it with, "How long do we have left?"

"Up 'til the candle burns out," Oran answered.

"We still have a few hours," she concluded before turning to Ben. "Mind if we steal one? I'd like to go around sharing our favourite memories of you."

The corners of Ben's lips turned upward and he gave a brief nod. "I'd love that."

As everyone deliberated where to start, Ben took a seat next to me in the circle where Lukas once sat. "You should go see him," he said softly.

I shook my head. "I'll have time later."

"But—"

"Tonight's about you. It's the last time it will be about you. I won't regret this moment. Besides, aren't you always the one insisting I give him space?"

Ben heaved a resigned sigh, but said no more as Erica—who won the rock, paper scissors competition for who could begin story sharing—began to narrate a time back in their school days when they convinced Ben to audition for a school play.

Though the whole time the crowd went around sharing blissful times of Ben, the knot in my stomach wound itself tighter and tighter as I wondered whether I was letting an irreparable gap grow as Lukas distanced himself from me again.