He grew his bristles, he had on a hat, and he had his sunglasses. He was not even wearing his Luke Edner look. Yet this woman recognized him.

"You don't know how I fucking—" the woman stopped to stare at Jade, "—how I fucking," she continued, whispering the last word, and finished with, "love you!" her brown eyes wide, hair turning golden before his eyes.

"Yes, thank you," was all he could say, pulling Jade along with him. Then he stopped and turned to face the woman. He hesitated, but his peace relied on this woman's ability to keep a secret. "This is my home," he told her.

"Nice home," she said, nodding vigorously.

He allowed a tight smile. "I enjoy my privacy here."

Again, she nodded.

"I truly do."

She just nodded.

With a frustrated sigh, he said, "I'm asking you to keep this to yourself."

The woman blinked. "Yes, of course! I'm new here—we're new here. My lips are sealed. But I want you to know that I've been voting for you online. I've made noble efforts so your hashtag trends on the Opulense and every other social platform. I manage one of your fan cafes and I—" her voice faltered, and she bit her lips and winced. "And I'm talking too much."

Lucas nodded. "Thank you."

"Lola. My name's Lola De—" she stopped, then smiled. "Just Lola, Mr. Edner."

Lucas nodded and turned to Jade who was giving him a curious look. "We have to go," he told Lola. "Enjoy Midway."

"Oh, we don't live in Midway. We're actually from Cale."

That made it even fucking worse, he thought to himself. "Great. Still, enjoy the city. I'm sure Cale doesn't offer as much."

She moved when he stepped away, as if she was drawn to him. Then she caught herself and waved goodbye with a dreamy look on her face.

With a sharp turn, he led Jade away from the woman.

"You're famous," Jade said.

"Not really," he lied. "Let's get back to the car. And I think you need new clothes and shoes."

"I don't—"

"You do," he cut in a little sharply than he intended. He sighed. "I'm sorry. Just don't say no when I'm trying to help you."

Jade said nothing until they were back in the parking lot of the hospital. Once inside, Jade turned to him. "You're not used to helping people."

"I've helped others before, but just not someone like you." He drove out of the parking lot and there, outside the café, was the same Opulent looking at them, grinning like a fool, her hair still golden. There was a man standing and talking beside her, unheard. Lucas cursed under his breath.

If he did not go out of Cale, if he did not have to go to this fucking hospital, he would not have met the Opulent.

Why did he even trust her to keep this a secret? Fangirls never did. They would always want to have the bragging rights to the same building he was in, the same ground he walked—the same fucking air he breathed.

He scoffed when it occurred to him. An Opulent. While it was not unheard of, he rarely encountered Opulent fans. He was not that big of a superstar to capture the attention of the most conceited and supercilious breed he'd ever had the chance to encounter.

"Why does her hair change color?" Jade asked, tone not at all curious.

"She's an Opulent."

"Opulent?"

"Most people call them Villains, but not all of them are. It's a long story. You'll get bored."

"She did not seem like a villain to me."

"You'll understand when you know enough."

"Why does her hair change color?"

He shrugged, turning into a shopping strip. "Might be her Curse."

"Curse?"

"Opulents have them. They all do. It's like a disease that runs in their blood."

"All of them change hair color?"

"Not all Curses are the same."

She nodded. And then silence. But only for a while. "Then maybe I'm a Villain. Losing my memory might be my Curse."

"I don't know much about Opulents and their Curses, Jade, but I'm pretty sure you're not one of them."

"How can you be sure?"

"Well, for one, the blood from your scratches was red."

"What color is their blood?"

"Glowing blue."

"Glowing?"

He nodded. "Glowing blue."

"Then I'm human."

Vampires also have red blood, he wanted to say. "Highly likely." He parked outside a shop he was familiar with. "We have to hurry."

"You don't like them?" Jade asked moments later while he absently picked clothes that might fit her.

"Who?"

"Villains."

The old woman in front of them looked up with a scowl and made the sign of the cross. He gave her an apologetic smile and ushered Jade away. "Don't speak that word in public."

"Why?"

"Because in this part of the world, humans are a little bit too touchy. And as I've said, they're not technically called Villains. They're Opulents."

"Then what are Villains?"

"They're the special kinds of Opulents. It's a job title."

"What job?"

"Soldiers."

Jade absorbed the information a little longer. "Are Opulents enemies?"

"No, not anymore."

"Why?"

He hated doing this. All he wanted to do now was go back to Cale, drop Jade off to the farmer's house, and go home where he could be alone.

"Because they did things. Let's not talk about this, okay? Let's get you some shoes."

"What sort of things?" Jade asked very much later as they drove out of Midway.

Lucas' lids closed halfway to hide the rolling of his eyes. "Bad things."

"They killed people?"

"Thousands—millions," he replied almost impatiently. "I'm sure you knew this before you lost your memory. Your parents must have told you."

"Did they kill humans?"

"And others."

"Then why is that woman free to roam around humans?"

"Because they're not prohibited to be inside Vestas. The war happened thousands of years ago."

"What war?"

He stole her a look. The city had now disappeared, and they were now in an Erebus. He drove faster to get to Cale and safety. They passed by a small Erebus town with a few beings walking around like humans, looking exactly like humans, but were just not humans. The houses were made of stone, their roofs of straw. The doors and windows were always closed. Sometimes, there were no doors at all.

The fields on either side might seem the same as the ones in the Vestas, but they were not. There were flowers he was not familiar with; glowing dusts floating in the air like fireflies. There were trees that moved without wind, whispering secrets to whoever would listen.

Lucas stepped on the gas and sped past the small town in less than five minutes. Jade was still waiting for his reply. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

"The War of Grace. It's in the history books. Thousands of years ago, humans sort of rebelled against the gods because they were playing with us."

"In what way?"

"Coveting wives, daughters... anything they wanted." He paused when he saw a woman standing on the side of the road in a long dress, seemingly lost. She looked beautiful—black hair that did not seem to be moving but Lucas knew it did, he just didn't see it. She had a gorgeous body, and beautiful coffee skin that glistened in sunlight. Perfectly not human. For a split second, their eyes met and he thought he saw a smile curl her lips. Then he looked away.

His foot pressed harder on the pedal, eager to reach the Vesta. He cursed when they arrived at a crossing and the old traffic light, wrapped in vines the color of pumpkin, turned red. They skidded to a stop and he restlessly tapped his fingers on the wheel, glaring at the lights while the animals crossed the street—dogs, cats, boars, buffalo, sheep, and many others. A young girl in a bright yellow dress with a bunch of wild flowers in her hand followed the animals. She turned her head toward them. Her cheeks were red and smeared with dirt, her skin tan from the sun. On top of her curly brown hair was a pair of short horns wrapped in floral vines. She waved at them before running through the animals who ran to follow her into the fields of grass and flowers. She disappeared into a field of tall grass, glowing orbs of dust rising in the air where she went.

"Who is that?"

"Could be a nymph," he replied. He looked at the rearview mirror. The beautiful woman was gone. The light turned green again.

"So what happened next?" asked Jade. "What did the humans do when the gods were being bad?"

"They prayed to the angels for help. Their prayers were answered and leagues of angels came down to help because that's what they do. But soon, the war became a bit different."

"How?"

"It was becoming more about the gods and the angels hating on each other. But some of them—" He paused, growing uncomfortable, "let's just say a few angels and a few gods came together—" He cursed because that did not come out as minor-friendly as he hoped. He cleared his throat. "Let's just say they procreated together and produced the Opulents."

"They married?"

He scoffed. "The universe will throw a feast if that's to happen. No, they didn't get married. They just procreated. Then the Opulents were born."

"They are half-god-half-angel!"

"Yes. The worst combination. Makes them more vicious and powerful than any being."

"And they joined the war?"

"At first, some fought beside the gods, others with the angels. But then they realized they're more powerful, so they built their own empire. They killed whoever was in their path—angel, god, human, and others. Then they worked with the vampires, the mortal enemy of almost everyone.

"The humans were helpless. The Opulents did what the gods did to us for many years. They took our wives, our daughters, our husbands, brothers—anyone. Not because they wanted to breed with them, but because they just wanted to rid the world of humans."

"Why?"

"They think we're useless. We do unpredictable things. We tilt the balance, as they say. Books say Opulents have this innate gift of sensing the universe. Scholars believe it's because of the angel grace in their blood, others argue it's both the god blood and grace. So, anyway, since they have this special connection to the universe, they believe the universe constantly tilts because of humans. The stars misalign, as they say. To them, we're more of a nuisance. Pests, as one of them wrote in his memoir."

"Then what happened?"

"Humans could only pray. So we prayed to whoever god would listen, and someone answered. Vesta, the Goddess of the Hearth," he said, motioning at the border up ahead. "She gave us that and many others."

She nodded. "They say that no magic happens in a Vesta."

"None at all."

"Then why did that woman's hair change color?"

"That's not magic. That's a Curse. It's in her blood—some sort of a disease."

They finally entered Cale and Lucas slowed down. "What happened after the Vestas?"

"The Opulents continued to wage war against every being outside the Vestas. By then, we have not yet called the ground outside a Vestas as an Erebus. We called them Haunted Grounds. For some, they called it Hunting Grounds because that's the only place gods and Opulents could hunt humans. Later, after the war, we named any ground outside a Vesta an Erebus. Named after the god born out of Chaos. They said that dark mist covered the battlegrounds after the war, thus the name."

Jade turned her head to look out the window, at the vast sugarcane field. "How did it end, the war?"

"The gods and the angels made a truce. The Opulents were the stronger enemies. They were the villains. But they realized it wasn't that easy. They can't just kill them because they didn't know what would happen to their souls. So they asked for insight from the humans. Our ancestors suggested a spell. They called it the Spell of Thousands. The best human witches came together and developed the strongest spell ever created."

"What did it do?"

"It stripped Opulents of their powers and made them mortal so that when they die, they won't be more powerful than the gods of the underworlds or the angels if they ever go to heaven, which I doubt they do. The Spell of Thousands also gave them their Curse."

Jade nodded. "So they lost the war."

"Not really."

"No?"

"Some of them still have their powers. They call it their wings. Which is why you don't venture out of the Vestas. You can't stay inside an Erebus for long where their powers work. They're still out there. And they still do whatever Opulents do."

"Hurt humans?"

He shrugged. "Whatever they fancy, I guess."

"Like what?"

The face of a childhood friend flashed in his mind. Lucas veered the Rover to the side of the road and stopped. "Listen," he said, turning to fix a stern look at Jade. "Opulents do a lot of selfish things. It's always about them. They think they deserve better, they think they're better. It may have been years since the War of Grace and everyone sort of managed to come to terms with the changes, but the Opulents stay true to their nature. They always think they're doing things for whatever universal balance bullshit they're trying to sell, but it boils down to them wanting to be the most powerful. And they are, in some sense, very powerful. Do you understand? As humans, we have to fend for ourselves. The gods will not help us. The angels had abandoned us. We are all on our own and our Vestas. Do you understand?"

She nodded. "Don't go into an Erebus."

"Never. You don't venture outside Cale unless you're with me. You don't cross into the woodland."

"Because it's an Erebus."

Lucas nodded, eyeing the woodland on the other side. "People ventured into the woodland and never came out."

"Why do we still let them inside our Vestas?"

Lucas pulled out of the side of the road. "Economics and Politics," he replied. "But that's for another day."

***

The crickets and the toads surrounding the Wyrd House were not in great harmony; so did the strong wind outside that foreshadowed the storm. Someone from a distant part of the woodland was singing a hymn that whispered back to them like a soft whistle, as if crying for help. Worse, the house was still as dark as Isla's soul.

"And why were you not able to meet this solar panel guy?" Isla demanded from across the long table, over the six candles, moths, wine, and steak.

"We waited for him to return but he didn't."

"Did you offer more money?"

"Of course!" her sister said.

"And how long did you have to wait for this guy?"

"Three hours?" she asked, turning to Tien who was silently cutting his steak.

"And why were you gone for almost the entire day?"

"We went shopping. Then we stayed at a café because I needed to charge all my gadgets."

Tien looked up and stared at Lola. When her sister deliberately ignored him, smiling at Isla as if she was not hiding something, Tien bent his head back on his steak.

While Isla could look into their thoughts, she refrained from doing so. She counted in her head.

"I saw Luke Edner," Lola blurted out.

Cris looked at Lola with the same condescending frown on his face, knife and fork frozen in midair.

Then Lola's face lit up, her eyes all glimmery. Isla called that look an omen of something fanatic and crazy to come. "Can you believe it? He's here. Literally here in East Isles!"

"You met him in Midway," she repeated. "And what did you do?"

"I approached him?"

She carefully sipped her wine, wishing it was the blood of the stupid beings around her. Lola shifted uncomfortably in her seat when Isla's glass met the table soundlessly. Isla looked at her sister, icy blue eyes dancing with the fury inside her and the flickering lights of the candles.

"You claim you came here to help me, but I knew from the start, Lola, that you also knew where Luke Edner was before we even left London." Her chilly voice rolled from her throat like acrid smoke, as if fire was burning inside her, ready to burst. "You came here knowing why I have to put myself in this bloody dismal circumstance—one you also persuaded me to do, if you must have forgotten," she continued in a low voice that was not at all comforting because Lola was looking ashen and overwhelmingly guilty. "And while I force five Opulents to grace a contract so the true purpose of my presence here doesn't go out should they find out, you sashay around the city, chasing after a bloody human, exposing your color-changing hair and stupid, foolish Opulent fangirling self to him." She did not shout, but she might as well have because Lola flinched.

"You might as well call Diana so the two of you can hunt that bloody human and offer yourselves as sacrifice," she finished, throwing her napkin on her plate, and stood. "I'll be late tomorrow. Tien and I will go to Midway. Go straight to the office. And you'll also need to find a school," she added to Cris. "It seems I have to do all the work myself around here."

Cris and Lola did not even wait until she disappeared upstairs.

"She's sensitive nowadays. What the bloody hell were you thinking?" she heard Cris hiss. "If she gets her hands on that Luke Edner, that human will be over."

"You can't be serious!" her sister hissed back.

"She'll ruin him."

"I just got a little excited!"

"Then stop acting like a child! Your sister's future is at stake here! Unless you wish to call Rowan your Emperor, be my guest and shout to every bloody being who would listen that Isla Develler can't be Empress because she gets her memory wiped twice a year! You of all—"

Isla did not hear more. She did not want to.

She was just tired.

***

Later, Lola came to her room, carrying a candle. "I'm sorry," her sister said, hair the color of the night sky.

Isla ignored her, looking at herself through the mirror of the antique dresser in her room. The fourposter bed was behind them. So was the little boy.

He was just sitting there on the floor beside the bed, arms around his knees, his pale, translucent face wearing a wicked smile.

She had been ignoring the ghost since she first entered the room. And so far, he had been doing his best to get her attention, being as equally irritating as everything around her. She would not have to deal with him if the ground was graced.

"Isla," Lola said, eyes begging. "I won't do it again. It's just that... it felt unreal to see him."

"He's just a bloody human, Lola. What's unreal about that?" She placed her brush on the dresser. Then stood and went to the open windows. The maya bird flew away when she slid the windows closed. Her legs felt cold when she walked through the boy. He disappeared like smoke, only to reappear by the dresser, the brush getting his attention. He tried to move it like the many other things in the room, but failed.

"But he's Luke Edner and—" Lola stopped. "It won't happen again. I won't seek him out."

Isla slid into the bed, brow cocked, completely doubtful.

"Because I promised him. And a fangirl's promise is stronger than Cupid's arrow. You must know that."

"Fine," was all she said.

Lola broke into a smile. The boy managed to move the brush a little. Her sister placed her candle on the bedside table and climbed in. Then paused. "Hmm. This bed has seen a lot of deaths." Motioning her head at the boy behind her, she whispered, "Your bed also tells me his name is Jeremiah. He snuck into the woods with his friends. They climbed up the roof to see how far the woodland goes, but he accidentally fell right into this room and died. His friends said they'd be back, but they never returned."

The boy turned, probably sensing they were talking about him. Isla ignored him. Ghosts trapped in this world had always been harmless. At least for Opulents because they could not be possessed; their angel grace would repel anything that would try to invade their soul.

"How did it go? The first day at work?" Lola asked.

"They're all Waifs," she said.

"But surely they're not that useless."

"They know their work. I'm just not sure how good they are at it. I'll have to find out." Sensing her sister's hesitation, she added, "And yes, I've been inside the Booth."

Lola bit her lip. "Was it horrible?"

"It was fine. I'm sure I did well six months ago."

"Did you review your cards?"

"No. The Keeper was with us. However, I took two years of Cris' memory. Found Tiffany Child."

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yes, that bloody bitch." Her hand balled into fists. "I'll have her neck now, but I have priorities, of course."

Lola smiled. "You can't go near her. She has a restraining order against you."

"That's human law, Lola. I will have her neck inside an Erebus."

"That's not really a villainy thing to do."

"Of course, it is. The number of bitches in this world tilts the balance. The world needs cleansing. She'll be a good start. And closing my hand over someone's throat is not unheard of. Ask any Villain."

Her sister laughed. "You know, she also called you bitch, right?"

"Humans label beings poorly."

Lola sighed and slipped out of bed. "I hate your bed. It keeps giving me images of dying people. Do you know that you're lying right on top of rotting flesh?" She picked up her candle and turned to Isla. "Humans aren't that bad."

"Of course, they are not, fangirl."

"Luke Edner was pretty nice."

"He has to be. He profits from your lunacy."

Lola rolled her eyes. "He was really nice."

"Sure." She fixed her hair over her right shoulder. "Tien thinks you're weird."

Lola frowned. "Weird? Why?"

"He thinks you're obsessed."

"You looked into this thoughts to spy on me?" Lola asked with disbelief.

"No, he told me."

"He told you I'm obsessed?"

"Yes."

"With a human?"

"Yes."

"Well, of course, I am. But more so for his music and his amazing voice."

Isla lay down. "Shut the door, Lola."

"He's hot. He was really hot," her sister's dreamy voice echoed in the room.

Eyes closed, she sleepily asked, "Who?"

"Luke Edner, of course."

Isla just scoffed.

"I can allow you a trip into my memory if you want to see."

"No, thank you," she murmured into her pillow.

Humans were never her thing.