Chloe and Elaine sat at the kitchen table with Persephone and Alerik Grace Albright, drinking coffee and catching up, the adults doing their best not to acknowledge the way the young woman with them was anxiously biting her lip, her leg bouncing under the table.

Finally Persephone sighed, leaning back in her chair, arms folded under her breasts. “Alright, Chloe, what’s on your mind?”

Chloe’s face lit up and sat forward. “Noah found the lawyer.”

Persephone stared, stone faced, her entire body rigid. Alerik slowly dropped his face into his hand, eyes focused on his niece. It had been an open secret within the family that Noah was an assassin for Havik, something Persephone absolutely hated. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe what he was doing was right, in fact every person he’d targeted had deserved it. 

It had everything to do with how he left them in the first place. He’d been cold, callous, and unemotional as he told them not to expect to see him ever again. He had a job to do and they no longer mattered in his life. Persephone had begged him to reconsider, to stop being so hateful. He’d just laughed in her face, that smile so dead in his beautiful face.

“I’m not being hateful, Mom. I just don’t give a fuck.”

With that, he was gone. Fifty years and he’d not said one word to any of them. The only way he “communicated” was through the bodies he sent to Arla, and the impersonal reports to Kayla. Persephone had seen him only once and it was entirely by pure happenstance. She was in a town along the border doing some research on a case when she heard a door slam. She’d looked down the street to see her son, tears in his eyes, take a few faltering steps and stagger into the building he’d come out of. He’d covered his face, his shoulders shaking. She almost ran to him, almost called out his name…but she did nothing, just stood there with her mouth open as he stood there, sobbing for several, agonizing seconds before he pushed himself off the wall, spread his wings, and flew away as fast as he could.

This was twenty years ago. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since. 

Hearing his name now sent her mind spinning. She pressed her foot into the floor, making sure she was still firmly planted and not floating off somewhere. Alerik, on the other hand, was the perfect image of control. Through their link, she could tell he was trying to keep it together, that he was just as blown away as she was. 

He’s…not dead… he thought with sheer amazement. He had been sure Noah had been killed at some point. That’s how little they knew of their only son’s life.

Chloe took out a photo and set it on the table, pushing it toward them, both their eyes dropping down to it. Persi gripped her arms, her nails close to breaking the skin, as she recognized instantly the mark on the body.

“Wolfsbane,” she muttered out loud.

Chloe nodded. “On the right hip. I circled something else for you to see.” She handed Alerik the magnifying glass, catching on immediately that Persephone would not be breaking her statue-like state any time soon. Alerik peered through the glass at the indicated spot, frowning.

“A scar?” he finally asked, looking back up at the girl.

“A rumor was going around that one of the people who may have been involved in the attack on the courthouse was familiar with the layout, possibly even a mole. When I finally got my hands on the photos taken from the crime scene, and all the reports that went with it, there were a few things I didn’t understand, and I’m still struggling with it all even today.”

Persephone gave her a slow blink. She didn’t like talking about that day. The bombing had killed one of her paralegals, and nearly killed Persephone herself. Alerik had damn near lost his mind at the hospital, yelling at everyone, ordering that every Master Healer in the Nine Realms get their asses there and save his wife or there would be hell to pay.

“The epicenter of the blast and the force used seemed more like it was meant to destroy one area, not the building itself. At least, that’s a theory me and a lot of other detectives had at the time.”

“You’re saying the courthouse itself wasn’t a target?” Alerik asked.

“No, just what was in it,” Chloe said. “The force of the blast was meant to do as much damage as possible, likely in an effort to mask its actual location. We all know it was planned as a way to frame the exiles, that hasn’t been in doubt for a long time among more people than are willing to admit. But that wasn’t the only reason, it couldn’t have been. If it was, they wouldn’t have gone after the soul processing Realms.”

Even Elaine sat up straight on that one. Just a few hours prior, they had both still been struggling with the reasons why those two Realms were chosen when they really had nothing whatsoever to do with the exiles.

“Why not the Fifth Realm?” Elaine asked.

Alerik’s eyebrow jerked up. “Seriously?”

Elaine rolled her eyes. “Nox.” Nothing more needed to be said. They all knew what a destructive and brutal Devil King he was. After all, it was he who had been training Toji this whole time to become the monster he now was.

“The group responsible, the Rogue Divine,” Chloe said, “had been trying to get the barrier closed for weeks, if not months. It’s also possible it could have been longer but they were quiet about it, in the planning phase, I guess. They were making coordinated blitz attacks on the exile settlements, starting off as just a threat, before escalating to straight annihilation. Their ultimate goal is still unknown to us, but Natsu’s team may have finally learned what it is and are doing their best to stop them.”

“So what’s their goal here?” Alerik asked. “There have been factions of those Rogue bastards going after the Helmans and the Helman Kingdom for years, as well as—”

“Hunting down former exiles,” Persephone answered, her voice hollow. “Holy shit, how have I never noticed this before?” She pulled the photo to her, staring at it as she let her thoughts pour out of her. “What would be the point of the barrier closure if there were still going to be those out for blood? It doesn’t change anything at all. The attacks would still happen, the target is just slightly different and much more broad. The High Divine had to know this, he’d be a fool not to.”

She tapped her finger on the circled faint scar. “Hans Grumin was a lawyer who worked with those who wanted to punish through exile, pushing almost militantly for it. He called them ‘vermin’ that infested our world.”

“What did he think of former exiles?” Elaine asked.

“Not much better, honestly. He said they were a plague, that they deserved to be sent back and destroyed.”

Chloe sat back, rotating her coffee mug back and forth on the table between her fingers. “Would he want to lead a group to go after them?”

“I have a feeling Havik and Kayla thought the same thing,” Persi said, sitting back. “They wouldn’t have sent Noah otherwise.”

“Why Noah?” Alerik asked. “Why not Ynda or one of the other flowers?”

Her eyes slid over to her husband. “Noah will forever be young and beautiful, no matter how long he lives.” She curled one hand into a fist on top of the photo. “Hans was a pervert who took a great interest in boys just like him.”

Alerik paled. “You don’t think he—”

“Noah wouldn’t let him get that far,” Chloe said quickly. “According to Ynda, Noah won’t let anyone touch him. He will flirt and seduce, but he won’t sleep with them. There are rumors that he has taken some of his victims as lovers but no one can confirm it.”

“I guess that’s some small comfort,” Alerik said, taking his wife’s hand. 

“There’s more to this attack than just the exiles,” Chloe said, shaking her head. “You’re right, if the attacks continue to occur here, even if not exactly the same as down there, why bother shutting the barrier?”

They sat there silent for several long, tense moments, their coffee going cold, their minds not wanting to go in a direction they wouldn’t be able to return from.

“Rik,” Elaine said quietly, drawing her brother-in-law’s attention. “Why was Toji really sent to the Fifth Realm? And don’t tell me it was to give off an image of family fracture to the right people.”

Alerik winced, his finger tapping on the table, his eyes averted as he contemplated how much information he should allow to be disclosed. After a moment he said, “I am not at liberty to discuss it right now.”

“Oh, you asshole,” Elaine said, her eyes catching fire. 

“Elaine—”

“He’s our nephew, Alerik!” Elaine shouted. “He’s been turned into something evil by Nox, something he never wanted to be, and there has to be a reason for it.”

“He’s not evil,” Alerik said gently. “Yes, he’s had to give in to his darker side, but what he does is in the name of Devil King Nox and only in Hell. I won’t deny what he’s become is abhorrent, but evil he is not. He’d never allow himself to get that far.”

Chloe lifted her eyes to her mother, sadness swimming within them. “He loves Natsu far too much for that.”

Elaine dropped her elbows to the table, her face going in her hands. “If that’s the case, then why? Why was he created into such a beast?”

“To get stronger,” he said.

Elaine parted her fingers, one blue eye staring down the angel spy. 

“Elaine, I need to ask you to trust me,” he said calmly, his eyes steady. “Trust Hero, and Havik especially.”

Elaine stifled an aggravated groan, knowing full well Alerik had her pinned. Hero was her twin, the one she loved and trusted with every ounce of her being. He would never do anything without having a reason for it. Outside of a few bad calls when they were both still human and in college, and the disastrous events he put Toji through, he was still one to be trusted when a plan was in place that didn’t make sense. The one they’d been working on for decades was just one of them. Now, however, it felt like they were finally coming to a head, that all the answers they needed were right within their grasp.

She sighed. “Fine.” She turned to Persi. “Let’s run with this idea that the situation is a hell of a lot bigger than we thought, just like Hero said at the very beginning. The exiles are just a small part of this, including what the Rogue Divine are doing on both sides of the barrier. It’s entirely possible that the barrier itself is at the center of all of this.”

She looked at Alerik. “Care to dispute that part, at least?”

He shook his head. 

“Great, there’s where we start. If the bombing at the courthouse wasn’t really about the exiles, if perhaps Hans was manipulated into believing he was just cleaning up some mess or whatever, then whatever is behind all this was in that room.”

Chloe nodded. “I think you might be right. It’s also possible Hans may have been the one to set the bomb in the first place, we don’t know. That being the case, he was just a tool to use in the larger machine and Noah was the one to take him down.”

“Hans has been here for decades, likely as a bigshot for one of the factions,” Persephone said. “He was kept here for just that purpose, otherwise he’d be one of the names listed among the dead down there.”

“But now he’s a stiff in the Sixth Realm morgue, if not already burned to ash, and his body is a clue in and of itself.”

“Why would it be burned?” Elaine asked.

Chloe’s eyebrow ticked. “So Noah doesn’t get found out as his killer.”

When Elaine still looked confused, it was Persi who sighed. “You know what his codename is, right?”

“Wolfsbane.” With the utterance of the word, it clicked. The body had been poisoned with wolfsbane and Noah’s mark was on it. Arla wouldn’t follow through with an autopsy and she wouldn’t allow the ME to do so either. “Got it,” she said with a nod.

“How much was able to be salvaged from the blast?” Chloe asked Persi.

Persephone shook her head. “Not much,” she admitted. “But what was saved was stored in a warehouse several blocks from the courthouse.” Her eyes widened as she understood where her niece was going with this train of thought. “You think we might be able to find something.” It wasn’t a question.

The younger woman smiled. 

Persephone mirrored it. “Come back tomorrow morning for breakfast and I’ll take you there. Bring gloves.”

-*-