“Sorry it’s nothing fancy-.”

I shook my head, saying, “It’s fine. I don’t want to cause an economic collapse.”

Lizzy sat down at a small dining room table. Tiny, really, compared to the room. The chairs weren’t the cushioned, ornate wood that once rested here but instead simple folding chairs. I sat next to her, unphased. Tammy would fix it, I was sure. She cared a lot more than I did how things looked.

“Well, anyway,” Lizzy said, picking up some papers, “here’s the renewal for your license to practice. Just finish this paperwork and bring it to the courts for approval. You’ll get your badge back, and they’ll add you to the consult list for our force.”

“And independent access to case files?” I asked.

“Of course. I also have John Doe’s file here for you to go over,” she said, tapping a sealed manilla envelope. “It’s… thick.”

“How is he?”

“He’s stable, but that’s all they’ll tell me,” she said. “I wanted to peek at that file so bad… You’ll just have to tell me what you find, okay?”

“What did they tell you?”

“‘Whatever you’re thinking, that.’”

I flinched. I could think of some dark things, things they did to me and other kids. I opened the package and scanned the first page.

“What the fuck?” I breathed.

“Bad, right?”

I sighed and said, “Remember when I first got here?”

“Yeah, no one had ever gotten away from the Reds, so everyone was asking you what it was like. You said they destroyed you.”

“I was worked, humiliated, beaten, starved. They pulled me apart and made me put myself back together, over and over. The only way to make it stop was obedience,” I told her. “This kid makes all of that look like a paper cut.”

“What does that mean?”

“He has bites all over his neck and shoulders, like a vampire used him as a juice box. Looks like he was recently disemboweled for fun. Nothing missing, but it was pretty badly infected. There’s a hole in his hand-.”

“That’s how she found him. He was nailed to a tree with a rail spike,” Lizzy said.

“Who found him?”

“Ah, some elf. I forgot her name. You’ll meet her soon.”

“What do you mean?”

Lizzy shrugged and said, “She won’t leave. Some nurse agreed to let her stay with the kid, and he won’t let anyone throw her out.”

“Fuck me. Please be joking.”

“He screams! The only way to placate it is to let her stay with him. They even tried taking her out when he was sleeping. Didn’t work. He woke up and started screaming himself hoarse until they let her back in. He likes her.”

“Or she’s using him,” I said. “You don’t think it’s suspicious, do you? That this elf found him, called for help, and now has free shelter?”

“Oh, it’s odd. It’s not where they normally drop bodies,” Lizzy agreed. “But he’s not exactly a normal body, either. My guess is that they wanted him found.”

“Found by her.”

Lizzy shrugged. “You’re the detective. Look, I need to get Mom home. Do you need me to-?”

“No,” I said, “just take Tammy and the kids outside. Don’t let them hear.”

She nodded and left me alone in the dining room. I sat down and tucked all the papers into the envelope to protect them.

Didn’t need blood on my applications.

“Do you really want to do this?” I asked.

I looked over my shoulder at my sister. She glared at me from the doorway, her down-beaten husband over her shoulder.

“You got away with murder,” she said.

“I confessed. Everyone knows what happened.”

The couple stalked towards me. James’ grip on his cane tightened.

“You weren’t punished,” he said.

“I was exiled with nothing but the clothes on my back and an infant.”

Hina laughed sharply, annoyed.

“That’s not a punishment,” she snarled.

I raised my hands, saying, “Then punish me. I was raised on it.”

My head snapped to the side in pain. James wobbled without his cane to support him, using it instead to hit me. I dropped and covered my head. Blows landed against my body. A sharp heel to my shoulder. The toe of a boot to my ribs. My arm retracted, and the clasp of a purse scraped my forehead. I bit my tongue, fighting the need to scream. A boot, a heel, a boot, a purse.

The cane slammed into the back of my head again, plunging me into darkness.

I stirred at the sound of a heavy door closing. A teen boy stared at me in concern. I wanted to sit up, but it hurt too much. He knelt next to me instead.

“Why didn’t you fight me?” he asked softly.

“I don’t wanna hurt you,” I squeaked.

He ran his fingers through my dirty, black locks and kissed my forehead. His own blonde hair was tied back and clean, just like his clothes. He climbed into the tiny bed with me, careful of my injuries, and pressed our heads together.

“I don’t wanna hurt you either,” he said. “They’ll punish you.”

I shut my eyes again and settled into his arms.

“They won’t kill me, Barney. I’m worth more alive.”

An ice pack pressed to my face. I hissed.

“Oh, thank gods,” Tammy sighed. “I was about to call a taxi.”

I groaned and took the cold pack from her, sitting up. Pain. Softness beneath me. A bed. Tammy sat down next to me on it.

“What the hell was that about?” she asked.

I grunted again. “Hina and James worship Jinori. You know how he is.”

She shook her head, saying, “You’d have to do something seriously wrong to make him approve of that! That kind of violence is…”

“What I deserve. Tammy,” I sighed, “I never told you why I was exiled, did I?”

She shrugged and picked up a glass.

“Not exactly,” she said. “I mean, you told me the Reds forced you to do something horrible and killed Mom to make sure you did it. But you never actually said what they wanted.”

She wrapped my free hand around the glass of water. Ice clinked. I took a sip.

“They wanted my mom dead,” I said flatly.

She stared silently as I took another, longer drink.

“I wonder if Luna’s whiskey is still hiding in the pantry…”

“Daddy, I- You- How?”

I sighed and set the glass down, then nestled painfully into the bedding.

“They made sure failure would hurt more.”

Not that the memories I had didn't.

I was barely nineteen. My grip tightened on my knife. Throat dry. Heart pounding. I gently pushed the door open, praying it wouldn’t squeak.

I had no choice.

I crept inside. Mom and Sal curled up together quietly, sleeping deeply. Her night-black hair flowed around her, a gentle smile on her red lips. I covered my mouth. Don’t breathe. They’ll hear you. The shining blade hovered over her head, trembling in my hand.

Tammy pulled me from the thoughts again, asking, “But, Dad… She was your mother. I just- I don’t understand.”

“You will,” I said. “Just… under better circumstances, I hope. Basically, I had to choose between my mother… and yours.”

Her eyes widened. I took another deep breath and tried to explain.

“I had just been approved to start my own agency,” I told her, “and we were settling into our own apartment, getting ready for you. When I came back from the office, from setting things up… she was gone. They made sure I understood that I would do my job, or I’d lose you both.”

“What, they left, like, a note or something?”

“Or something.”

“But Mom…,” she whispered. “They still killed her.”

I nodded. “They decided I was too slow. By the time I got there, she was dying. I couldn’t save you both. I… barely saved you. I had to have a god’s help, Tammy. I sold a soul that doesn’t exist to make sure you survived. I have no idea what happens if I don’t fill that contract. But I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t lose both of you. Not after everything I did.”

Tammy nodded sadly and laid down.

“What was Mom like?” she asked.

“She was… everything. Oh, gods. I was smitten. She was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. Then she showed me she was kind and smart and funny, too. Taught me how to function in the real world.”

“The real world?”

“I had a rough childhood,” I said, defeated. “My father was one of the Red Hand, and… He wasn’t exactly proud of me. I was more of a- more of his servant than his son. And something of a toy to his friends.”

“And the kid we came back to help? They treated him that way, too?” she asked.

I sighed again and said, “Well, probably. At first. They eventually started training me, shaping me. They wanted to make me a tool, an assassin. This boy… I think they just like hurting him. He’s less a tool than an experiment.”

“What kind of experiment?” Tammy asked hesitantly.

I paused, then said, “To see how much a person can endure before they break.”

I adjusted my ice pack. Tammy stared a moment longer. Then she sat up.

“Can I go to a friend’s house?”

I blinked. “What?”

“My internet friends live in the city,” she explained. “They wanted to show me around if I wasn’t busy tonight. I wasn’t gonna go, but… You need to rest. And I really wanna meet them.”

I grunted. “Send pictures?”

“Of course! Thanks, Daddy.”

She wrapped me in a brief hug, then hurried away.

Alone again. Quiet. I sighed and glanced around. I knew this room. The high ceiling. The ornate light in the center of the room. They had painted, and the formerly burgundy walls were now a gentle, dark green, like moss. Dark wood replaced the old lush ivory carpet. It had been stained red last time I saw it.

I settled back into my bedding. It felt… weird to be in the master bedroom. My mother’s room. The only word that made sense was “regicide.” Like I had usurped a long standing dynasty. Every time I shut my eyes, that same old memory appeared behind them. I sat up again and wandered across the room to a door. Opening it, I stepped onto the small balcony overlooking the acreage. A blanket of pale flowers amid near-black leaves swept across the rolling hills. I leaned on the rail and felt something in my pocket.

The whistle.

My breath caught. I drew the thin metal out and stared at it. Tammy was out. I was alone. Didn’t need to be. Bad memories already surrounded me. Why not have a good one around? Silver metal, golden runes, blue gems. My fingers traced the markings like they did every time I held the damned thing.

Now keep in mind: She won’t be the same as you remember. Not exactly.

That warning made me pause. It was part of the reason I wanted to wait until we got to Rosewood. She would know this house, though. She spent more time in it than I did. But still. I wandered back inside, shutting the balcony door behind me.

I licked my lips, mouth suddenly dry as dust. Not the same, not exactly. But did she need to be exactly the same to be my Luna? I could deal with a few changes, right?

I put the whistle between my teeth and blew into it.

For a moment, nothing happened. No sound, no wind, nothing. Then the metal crumbled in my hand. I shut my eyes and sat on the edge of the mattress. Please…

Soft, slender fingers ran down an arm. I held my breath as gentle lips kissed my jaw.

“Hello, master.”

I opened my eyes.

She knelt on the bed next to me, distinctly, perfectly Luna. The same fawny silk hair, maybe a touch lighter. Her skin was paler, too, which made sense. She was dead, technically. Her flesh turned dark and blue, almost the color of the night sky at the extremities. A thin tail of the same hue flicked back and forth behind her. She also sported a pair of narrow horns that grew close to her head, following her hair. Only a thin lace nighty and panties covered her.

But she had the same storm-gray eyes that looked deep into me. That same playful sparkle. I cupped her face in my hands, drinking in those eyes.

“Luna.”

She smiled and laid her hands over mine.

“You look cold,” she cooed. “And so lonely.”

So lonely. I pulled her close and kissed her softly. She moaned and deepened the action. Her tongue slithered into my mouth, leaving me breathless. My hands moved to her hair, and I felt hers on my chest. Her leg slid over my lap so she could straddle me. I pulled back for air and fell across the mattress. Luna giggled, grinding into me.

“I can help with that,” she said.

“I know you can, my dove. You always have.”

She laughed again, tilting her head. I knew that face.

“Did I confuse you?” I asked.

“Sorry,” she said, brushing her hair aside. “Is this a game? I like games.”

Then I was the one confused.

“What do you remember?” I asked.

“Remember?”

“About me.”

She chuckled again, clearly nervous this time. “Soragi told me you would be my master now. That’s all I know.”

She leaned down to kiss me again, but I pushed her back.

“You don’t recognize me?”

“Should I?” she whispered, half seductive and half nervous.

“We were engaged,” I said firmly. “You were pregnant. She made it, you know? You should see her now. She’s-.”

“What are you talking about?”

The pain of that question reminded me of a time I was hit in the chest with a shovel. I cupped her face again.

“Your life. Luna-.”

“Can we get back to the sex? Please?” she asked.

“You really don’t remember anything.”

She sighed and climbed off me.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“No, no. I’m just… confused,” I admitted. “Soragi said you would be different, but- He didn’t say you wouldn’t remember me.”

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t remember anything before Soragi woke me,” she said. “This is the only life I know.”

“You don’t remember being human at all?”

She shook her head. “I’ve always been a concubus.”

I stared at her. No. She was Luna. It was her face, her body, her mannerisms. Down to the way she tried to crack her knuckles when she was unsure of herself.

I put my hand on hers.

“I’m Gekkou,” I said quietly. “What’s your name?”

“Midnight.”

“Do you like that name?”

“I don’t mind it.”

“Is it okay if I call you Luna?”

She stared at me. I couldn’t tell if she recognized it or not.

“You can,” she decided.

I palmed her face again. She closed her eyes and leaned into it. I watched her bite her lip. Bloodstained.

I planted mine on them again. She melted into my embrace. The hunger vanquished, I took my time easing her mouth open. When it did, our tongues danced together the same way they used to. I let my hands wander her body, reviving memories of a time I thought I’d lost.