"You know the whole Balance thing gave me so much hope. Now I'm wondering if Clem had it all wrong. Maybe we aren't all mages."

Irene groaned, turning her sun-kissed face up to the warm autumn sky as we made our way up the Main Street.

She wasn't the only one who put a lot of stock in Clementine's fervent beliefs. I drew a sense of power from it, even if it felt like I was being pushed around by some invisible force. I think because I didn't know why I'd been nudged this way and that. It still filled life with discovery and made me believe I wasn't another speck in the sand. It made me believe I had purpose.

Now I wouldn't say Victor's potential as a mage made me toss out the concept of the Balance like Irene wanted to do. But I was also wondering if the Balance was quite what she made it out to be. After all, Victor wasn't really showing any inclination towards being a wolf and I thought she made it sound like that sort of thing carried over from one generation to the next. That we all projected the magic somehow and for us it was in the form of a wolf. But maybe the Balance choose differently for Victor?

"I don't know," I sighed. Every time I felt like I was starting to figure this town out, something new questioned my understanding and started me back at the beginning. "I mean, the whole concept of the border and the call for Bodies is based in the Balance, right? Even if Graham doesn't want to admit it."

"Yes," said Armand with a nod. "You'll find most mages actually agreed on a lot of the Balance's doctrine, just not in the context that people like Clementine put it in. Mages do consider themselves conduits for a magic that permeates every atom in the universe. However, most thing we are just tapping into a supply like we would tap into water. The water isn't actively trying to affect us. It's there and we need to use it. The Balance preaches that we live in harmony with ourselves and the magic surrounding us."

"And how does the call support that though?" asked Irene, sounding more defeated than I've ever heard her before. "I mean what is my fucking purpose?"

She roars with frustration and I see Victor tense ahead of us. He'd kept quiet the whole way, but at least I knew he was listening to us.

"In regards to the call and the Balance," continued the mage as if the young woman walking next to him wasn't a ticking time bomb of rage, "don't overthink it. The town wants five humans at any given time to be residents. So there's a balance to maintain in that. Now what is less certain is how the call selects the Bodies. I've been studying this spell, which I hate to admit, is a rather masterful piece of work that I will only give credit to Hen's ancestors and not her loathsome father. That being said, there is an effort in the spell to seek someone who has given up on life, who needs a second chance and could easily leave society. Beyond that, there isn't an effort to specify a need to have so many feeders, mages, wolves, etc."

"I guess that's why I'm useless," said Irene, now deflated having shifted from anger to depression. "The only offer I've had is to be Antonov's wife. I suppose if the magic that brought me here didn't have a greater goal, I should just take what I can get. I wonder if I ask around if I could be a vessel for someone. They seem to have plenty of leeway with their life when they aren't being possessed and from what I here, vessels are usually ignorant of what the ghost does when they are possessed, so it will just be like falling asleep."

"I suppose," I said, uncertain Irene could really relinquish large portions of her day, or even whole days, to someone else. Not that I judge anyone for being a vessel, but Irene has a vibrance and energy that can't be contained. It felt like she needed to be her own person to thrive and I wasn't sure being vessel was the best option for that.

"What else am I supposed to?" She grumbled, a tinge of anger in her voice. "Marry Antonov and have his babies? Now that Natasha is good and dead, and Zelda can't have any more kids, all he has is Scarlett and who knows if that will be enough for him. He'll need another... Oh no, what if that's why the Balance brought me here? What if I was always intended to be a vampire baby incubator?!"

Her melodrama was almost enough to make me laugh, but I knew she was going over the top to hide her fear. Irene always puts on a strong front, but one thing we could be certain of was that we came to Whisper Valley because some part of our first life made it impossible to keep living. Something was enough to break her spirit before she came here. However, the first rule of the Bodies Club is to never ask about a Body's first life. Some are open about it, others are completely closed off.

I looked ahead, wondering what it was that brought Irene to the valley as it might help figure out what she was intended for. However, when I did, I saw my brother's back and then I realized something wasn't quite right.

"Whether the Balance is truly a thing or not," said Armand as he rubbed Irene's shoulder, "I highly doubt the great magical power ruling this planet decided Antonov needed more women to knock up. So I think—"

"You were excited..." The words dripped out of my mouth and my feet came to a stop just as we crossed over from the heart of town into the farmlands that stood between it and the forest.

"I was never excited about Antonov," grumbled Irene.

"I wasn't talking to you." My words weren't short or snippy. I was too lost in my thoughts to offer anything other than a flat, desperate tone.

I walked over to Victor who was still trudging forward and I grabbed his shoulder to turn him around.

"At your graduation party, you were so excited about starting your internship at Information Logistical Specialists. I don't know how you could be excited about a job like that, but that's besides the point because you did find it exciting."

"What's she going on about?" asked Irene, who looked to Armand for input. My eyes were focused on Victor so I didn't see a response from Armand, nor did I hear one, but I assume he shrugged.

"And you had been looking at apartment ads for months even though you didn't have the money yet to rent. You just couldn't wait for the future to get here."

"Yeah, so? Doesn't really matter anymore does it?"

Given the way he moped and shuffled his feet, had someone told me in a week's time he'd be heading to Whisper Valley, I might've believed it. But not the Victor I left at home. No, that one was in his prime. Certainly, there are those who hide the pain incredibly well, but I refused to believe Victor reached a point in his life where he wanted to end it all.

"It does matter actually," I said, shaking him a little so he looked me in the eyes. "Victor, it matters a great deal."

I looked over at my companions to see if they understood now. Irene appeared to be close to putting it together, while Armand took on a shade of green and was unable to meet my eyes. Then I turned back to Victor.

"I need you to be honest with me right now, okay? It may seem like a ridiculous question, but it's really important. Before you came to find me, did you want to end your life?"

He tried to step back in shock or perhaps disgust, but he couldn't with how tight my hold was.

"No, of course not. I just wanted to see you again."

"That could be it," said Armand quickly. "He just wanted to see you so badly that—"

"Armand." My voice was a cautionary growl and I felt my bones creak and my muscles flex as my wolf uncurled. I could smell it on him, fear, shame, and most importantly, lies. "Tell me about your work on the border. How come no other Bodies have shown up, and the one that has happens to be related to me?"

"Oh," said Irene, who took several steps away from Armand, not because she feared him but because she was currently standing in the range of fire. "Armand, what did you do?"

"He didn't want a second life," I added, my voice getting rough. "There is surely an endless supply of people that could've fit the bill, but my brother—who was eager for the future—was the one who ended up here. Even Violet had said that before she was called to the valley, she had wanted to die to join her daughter in the afterlife. Her familial bond with someone already in the valley was a boost to calling her, but she did want to die. So tell me how this happened."

"Maybe," said Armand as if he were doing a sales pitch, "he was called with the express purpose of provoking a powerful werewolf into bringing down the border so that her beloved human brother could return home."

"Uh, no one asked me to do that," mumbled Victor, who was clearly confused by the rapid increase in my displeasure. "Actually, the police called me directly, telling me they received a tip that a woman that looked like you was seen walking down the road that leads to this village."

"Called you specifically?" I asked, snapping around to look at him. I wasn't angry at him, but I couldn't just turn off my bristling anger. "Not mom or dad, but your cell phone?"

"Yeah, I guess so, which now that I think about it, that was a little weird."

I looked back at the mage with a growl, my posture beginning to hunch and my hair fluffing up.

"One last time, Armand, what did you do?"

"I haven't been supporting the border," he said with a nervous, ingratiating smile. "I've been working to make a hole in it. That way your brother could enter after I pretended to be the police department relaying at tip about your location. I may have also expressed the urgency in tracking you down so that your brother was more likely to come without saying anything to your parents."

I could hear my clothes beginning to tear as Irene shuffled my brother away. Somewhere in the back of my thoughts, I heard Everett begging me to tell him what was going on.

"Armand, are you the only reason my brother is here?" My voice was my own, but not the one familiar to my ears. There was a low rumble and a lisp caused by my elongating tongue.

"Yes," he said with a meek and apologetic smile.

"I'm going to kill you!"

My clothes ripped into pieces and I pounced on the mage whose mischief finally went too far.

***

Del discovers Victor wasn't called here by chance and Armand is to blame. Will she forgive him or will he be torn to shreds?

I know, another delayed post. But I'm trying to make up for it by posting on a different day than usual so I can (fingers crossed) post another chapter on Friday. Consistency was once something I could proudly proclaim but it's been years since that was truly accurate. So thank you for your patience. Not sure I deserve it, but I'm glad to have those of you that stick with me despite the sporadic posting <3