I looked at my daughter in complete puzzlement. How did she meet him? He was dead. And even if he wasn't, he needed to be physically close to Queen to be able to come here. I've been with Queen all this time, so nobody could've gotten that close to her without me noticing.

I didn't want to intimidate her so I steadied myself before I opened my mouth. "When did you meet him?"

"He came a few times," she said.

"When?"

"When I first got here I was really scared and alone so he took me to the sunflower place. He stayed with me until I was a little bigger and could be on my own." I nodded. "He taught me how to pull you guys into here." She grinned.

"When was the next time he came?" I asked.

"Ummm, the first time Lilith came."

"What did he do?" I asked.

"He told me to hide and to never let her find me. So now every time she comes, I do that." Why would Adam tell her to hide? From what I was aware of, he and Lilith were in love before he died.

"When was the last time she came?" I inquired.

"Umm a few days ago?" She said uncertainly. "She was talking to mom that time but she usually comes and goes a lot. I think she's looking for something."

"What was she talking to Queen about?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I was just trying to hide."

I groaned in frustration. The safest place for my daughter was supposed to be in Queen, but it seemed like anybody could access it. That didn't sit right with me at all. It pissed me the fuck off truthfully.

"Can you talk to Adam?" I asked.

"I only call him when I need him," she said.

"Call him," I instructed.

"But I don't nee-"

"Call him."

She sulked at my tone but closed her eyes. The wind whipped around us, and after a few moments the habitat around us changed and we were in some grassy meadow. There was nothing that I could see around us for miles and I turned to face her. "Where is he?"

"I'm here," a voice said from behind me.

I immediately turned around to see the man from Queen's memory and my anger took over. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and he didn't even flinch."Why the fuck are you here?" I seethed.

"Because I was called?" He said humorously. It was clear to see where Queen got her sarcasm from.

"Dad, let him go please," my daughter said as she tried to move my arm.

I rolled my eyes and let him go roughly as he fixed his now crinkled shirt. "No need to be mad, Syn. I'm not here to hurt anybody."

"Then why are you here?"

"To protect you all, my family," he said.

"I'm not your fucking family."

"I know that your father and I don't get along, but my daughter loves you. And I know you love her as much if not more. So you're family." I scoffed and shook my head. "You're taking care of my daughter, so I'm taking care of yours."

"Why don't you go be with Lilith or something?" I asked. "And aren't you dead?"

"I am dead, but I've passed on to Heaven because of my Angel side. I can only come as a spirit," he said calmly. "As for Lilith, I love her deeply but my daughter is my main concern and what she's doing..." he trailed off as he shook his head. "I can't support it."

"I don't trust you nonetheless," I said seriously as I moved my daughter behind me. "You're working with God, and all of you people up there want me and my father dead."

He nodded. "There are some beings that would prefer you both dead, but I'm not one of them. I like you for my daughter so it doesn't matter to me what they think of you. As for your father..." he laughed softly. "I'm afraid, I enjoy him too much to see him die."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Your father and I were close friends in the past-almost like brothers. We had a lot of falling outs, but a lot of brothers do," he said with a shrug.

"Brothers don't kill one another," I said.

"When other factors intrude...they can be capable of it. But this is not a storytime for my connection to your dad. I need you to trust me to take care of her."

"I don't trust you."

"I'm afraid you have no other choice," he said. "There is more danger than you realize. Lilith would be a threat, but Eve would as well...not to mention the Seers.

"What is Eve's fucking issue?"

"She's on some sort of mission, to supposedly eradicate sin from the world."

"Then she should kill herself," I proposed.

"That was a good one, dad," my daughter said with a chuckle from behind me. I laughed softly and shook my head at her. Just like her mother to make a joke out of a serious moment. It was charming though.

"It was pretty good," Adam approved with a smile.

I was naturally good at reading people and I hated that I got no bad energy from him. After everything I heard about him, I believed I would truly despise him, but I couldn't hate someone that was protecting the people that were important to me.

"Don't let anything happen to her," I said.

"I won't." I nodded and looked around. "Syn," he said. "Please tell Queen to trust nothing Lilith tells her."

I furrowed my brows but nodded. I had been telling Queen the same thing all of this time. "I will."

"Dad, mom is trying to wake you up," she whined. "You have to leave?"

"If we don't want her to think I'm dead then, yes. I do." She frowned and started crying into her hands. I was going to tell her to calm down until I remembered that she was truly just a child at heart. She didn't know how to control her emotions as we did, no matter how much snooping she did.
I pulled her to my chest and sighed. "I'll be back, baby girl."

"Promise?" She whispered.

"I promise."

She held up her pinky as she concealed her face in my chest. I locked mine with hers and she lifted her head and wiped her tears. "Okay."

I turned back to Adam and he gave me a nod, reminding me of something I should ask him. Since he was dead, I never thought I would have to, but since he was standing in front of me, maybe I should. I heard that traditionally it was right to ask first, but I'd do it regardless of whether he said yes or no.

I held my daughter's raised hand to stop her from snapping and I moved to stand directly in front of her. "Cover your ears." She frowned but did as I said. "Can you hear me?"

"No," she let out. When she realized what she did, her eyes widened and I shook my head.

"Cover them." She sighed but followed my instructions this time. She hummed a random tune and bopped her head and I took it as a sign that she couldn't hear me anymore. I walked over to Adam's side and he raised a brow at me.

"I wanted to ask-"

"Yes."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask," I said in confusion.

"I do. My answer is yes, Syn. You have my blessings."

I nodded. "Thank you," I said in a low voice.

"No need to thank me," he said. "Just continue doing what you're doing. But some advice to you?"

"Yes?"

"What would you give up for Queen?"

"Everything." He nodded and I waited for him to continue. "What's the advice?"

"That is the advice."

I was still perplexed but I nodded slowly and turned back to my daughter who seemed to be giving herself a personal concert. I walked over and tapped her shoulder and smiled when she jumped. "You can send me away," I said.

"You'll come back?" She asked as she squinted her eyes at me.

"I promised you I would."

"Okay, bye dad," she said as she waved her hand with one hand. With her other, she snapped her fingers.

꧁꧂

I felt cold water splash over my face and I shot up from the bed to see Queen holding a water pitcher in her hand. "What the fuck?" I said in frustration.

"Sorry, you weren't waking up," she said with a frown. I went to the bathroom to get a towel and Queen followed behind me. "Are you alright?"

I dried myself off and nodded. When I was done I looked back at her and a smile spread across my lips. "I met her."

"Met..." she looked down at her stomach as realization passed her features. "Oh, how? I didn't fall asleep with you."

"I think she came into my mind somehow," I said.

"That's...freaking awesome," Queen said excitedly.

"I met your dad as well," I said, watching as her jubilant expression fell and she frowned.

"My dad?"

"Adam. Turns out he's protecting her in there."

She shook her head and I couldn't imagine the mix of emotions passing through her mind. "Adam...how...protecting her? Protecting her from who? How can we even trust him with her?"

"I trust him with her. You know I wouldn't have left if I didn't. And he claims he's protecting her from anyone that's a threat. Mainly Lilith, the Seers, and Eve."

Queen ran her hand through her hair and looked around in frustration. "How is he even there?"

"I don't know. Apparently your mind is some sort of apparatus," I grumbled truthfully as I walked back into the room. "He told me to tell you something though."

"What?"

"To trust nothing Lilith says."

A troubled look passed onto her face and I raised a brow at her. "What is it?"

"Nothing." I gave her a doubtful look and sat at the edge of the bed. I knew she was lying to me, but she'd tell me eventually. "Sit down, I have a lot to tell you."

She sat down hesitantly on the bed next to me and I faced her. I began speaking and told her everything Sebastian told me. About the gun, her parents and my brother and father trying to kill me, and how Sebastian was working with Lilith. I left out the torture part though, it didn't seem relevant.

When I was done Queen stared off at the floor absentmindedly. "I can't believe this."

"Hey," I said softly. Her eyes moved back to mine and I took her hand into mine. "I'll be okay, Queen."

She gave me a small smile but it quickly disappeared as she dropped her face into her hand. "I just...how could I be so wrong about people? My parents, Lilith, Sebastian...what the hell?" She groaned. "Am I that easy to take advantage of?"

"Yes."

Her head shot up at me and I shrugged. "You're just very trusting, Queen. You give people the benefit of the doubt and it's something that makes me crazy about you, but you need to find a medium. We're having a baby and there are so many threats to her life. We need to be careful of who we trust, more now than ever."

Sadness painted her every feature, but she nodded in agreement. I noticed she was no longer speaking and I got a flashback of what happened when Lucifer unloaded that crazy amount of information on her. I didn't want her to go back into her funk so I needed to handle it before it got worse.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"Angry...sad, lonely I guess," she muttered.

"Why are you lonely if I'm here?"

She smiled at me and shook her head. "Just lonely in the sense that all this time I believed I had a good family. But it was all a lie."

I kissed her head and laid my hand on the back of her neck to get her to look at me. "We'll handle it, okay?"

She shook her head, her curls bouncing into her face. "No, Syn. I'm going to handle it. This wouldn't be happening to you if it wasn't for my family. I should take care of it."

"Well, I'm your family now, Princess. So you're doing nothing alone."

Her eyes began to water and she smiled at me again. "So then what do we do?"

"What we always do when there are things to expose at the palace."

"What's that?"

"We plan a dinner party."