Zac found the little family in the kitchen. It was a warm, sparkling clean room that carried the sweet scent of fresh pancakes and the warm bitterness of coffee. Skye twisted around at his arrival and pointed to an empty chair. He sat next to her, softly greeting his host and hostess as he did.

"Hey," Skye said. "Feel better?"

Zac nodded. "Yes, much better." He looked over at Brett. "Thank you for the clothing."

"I hope you don't mind," Skye said, "we just tossed out your old jeans. They weren't salvageable. At all. No amount of scrubbing was getting those stains out."

"It's fine," Zac said. He added, "Your hair is short."

He'd noticed it before, but he had been too distracted to say anything.

"Mom cut it for me," Skye explained.

"I had wondered why you wear it so long," Zac admitted. "It doesn't seem very practical."

"It's really, really not," Skye said with an aggravated sigh. "But tell that to the Aspect."

"Huh?" Zac tilted his head, confused. What did the Aspect of Death have to do with her hair?

Skye shrugged. "It's a weird thing that comes with being the Reaper. Sometimes when that trance thing activates, my hair grows out really long. I don't know why. It's annoying."

"Have you tried asking the Aspect to stop doing that?" Rose asked.

Zac startled. He'd basically forgotten Skye's parents were in the room.

"I have," Skye said. "I don't really get much of a response, just a feeling of amusement. I'm not sure whether it finds my complaint funny, or it gets too much amusement out of the long hair."

"It could be both," Brett said. "The Aspect is stubborn sometimes."

Zac's mind boggled. They talked about the Aspect like it was someone they all knew. Not Death itself inhabiting their child.

Zac cleared his throat. "How long have you known? About Skye, and the Aspect?"

"Pretty much all her life," Rose said. "Skye was stillborn. No pulse, no respiration, nothing. We were holding her to say goodbye, and she opened her eyes. Well, the Aspect did. It stared at me for a moment, then blinked, and she took a breath and started crying."

"The Aspect explained itself, eventually," Brett added, "but it had to wait until Skye's body was mature enough to speak. So we were pretty confused for a couple of years."

"And you just," Zac paused, uncertain how to phrase things without being rude. "Just accept it all?"

"We have our baby girl because of the Aspect. It gets a little odd, sometimes," Rose admitted, "but it's fine. The occasional poltergeist is a small price to pay."

"Oh." Zac nodded slowly. His human parents had accepted him the same way. They'd never questioned the child they found out in the storm, they simply gave him a name and a home and raised him like one of their own.

Zac's birth parents had not been able to accept what he was. Maybe humans were stronger. Some of them, anyway.

"You okay?" Skye asked.

"Yes. I'm just not used to being safe to speak freely about, well, you know. Everything," Zac admitted.

“It’s safe to talk about anything you want with us,” Rose said. “Would you like some breakfast?”

Zac wasn’t sure of his stomach, but he knew he needed to eat to replenish all the energy his body had used to heal. 

“Perhaps, just a little something,” he said. 

“Here we go,” Brett, said, piling a plate high with pancakes, scrambled eggs, and fruit.

“Um,” Zac hesitated, and then noticed Skye’s plate similarly laden.

 It looked like they knew how much a magic user needed to eat. Skye didn't hesitate for a moment, diving into the meal with gusto.

 He thought his stomach might rebel, but the first bite of perfect, fluffy pancake revealed that he was, in fact, utterly famished. 

“Coffee?” Rose offered.

“Yes, thank you, ma’am,” Zac smiled at the woman.

Coffee would be nice, warming and bracing. After the nightmares he’d had, he needed something to chase the cobwebs from his mind.

“How do you take it?” she asked.

“Oh, uh, just black," Zac replied.

Brett chuckled. “Just like Skye.”

Zac twisted to look at the girl. “You drink coffee? You’re fourteen.”

“Almost fifteen, and yeah," Skye shrugged. "I mean, I spend a lot of nights crawling around haunted houses and chasing exceedingly stubborn poltergeists. Coffee is your friend the next morning after a night of that.”

“Fair enough,” Zac said and accepted the cheerful blue and white mug from Rose.

He brought the mug to his mouth and savored the scent. He took a single sip, and the familiar warm sweet bitterness filled his mouth for a moment before a solid fist of ice constricted his chest.

The mug bounced off the opposite wall. Coffee splashed basically everywhere. Zac folded to the ground, retching. His vision narrowed. His ears rang.

“Zac?” Brett’s voice was soft and concerned, not angry even though Zac just threw scalding coffee at him.

“Sorry,” Zac coughed out the word. Why did he taste... there was nothing bad in it. It was just coffee!

Why hadn’t he checked the coffee? 

“What’s wrong?” Rose’s voice this time. 

He should answer but what could he say? 

“Mom, Dad, let me.” 

Skye’s voice. Oh, good. He couldn’t hurt her. She was stronger. 

“Sorry,” Zac repeated. 

Skye’s hand rested on the small of Zac’s back. She leaned against his side, a solid, cool weight.

“I’ll just clean this up then,” Brett said. 

Skye nodded. Zac felt her hair brush against his temple. He didn’t dare look up. 

“Let’s go sit on the couch,” Skye suggested. 

Zac let her pull him to his feet. It was easier to just do what she said. Then he didn’t have to think about how badly he might have just hurt her parents. 

“It’s not like that’s the first coffee mug to go flying across our kitchen,” Skye said. “I do tend to draw poltergeists. It’s no big deal.” 

“I should not have...” Zac trailed off.

“Hey.” Skye maneuvered them so that he was on the couch and she was curled up nearby. “No big deal. You had a bad moment. They happen.”

“I’m supposed to be more careful than that. I don’t even know why... why I...” Zac shivered.

Skye shrugged. “Bad memory got called up. You reacted. Right?”

“Well, yes, but... I don’t act on every bad memory I ever had.” It would be disastrous if he did.

Zac had many ‘bad memories’ and the destruction he could wreak, especially if he lost control and entered the Blood Trance, did not bear imagining.

“I imagine this one is more recent?” Skye guessed.

Zac nodded. “I... the coffee. It was the smell. I.” Zac shook his head. “I love the smell. Always have. But. It was in the coffee. The drugs Alex used.” Zac closed his eyes. “I didn’t even think to check it.”

“Ah.” Skye's voice was a soft breath, barely a sound. Her small hand rested against his shoulder, providing a gentle anchor against the memories as he spoke.

“I don’t want to give up drinking coffee,” Zac said plaintively. “Finals are coming up! I have to help the students study!”

Skye tilted her head. “Oh. That’s so... sweet.” She sat back. “You shouldn’t have to give up anything. Not coffee, not leading study groups, nothing. You did not do anything wrong.” She wrapped her hands around her knees. “We’ll find a way, don’t worry.”

“I’m not... I don’t react like this,” Zac said. He had to make her understand. Something was wrong. He was dangerous, unbalanced. “I have to control my actions. I have to maintain control.”

“I understand,” Skye said. “I do. If anyone understands the need for self control, it's me.”

Zac nodded slowly. Right. She was a berserker as well, the first other Crimson Dancer he had ever met. And Death incarnate on top of that. The control she maintained just to function like a normal human on a daily basis must be massive.

“You’re just shaken right now. In shock.” Skye shrugged. “You haven’t had time to process anything that happened. Just breathe, and take a few days. It’s fine. I’m right here. I’ll help you. I can protect my family if you have an episode. And you can protect them if I do. We’ll be each other’s safeguard. Deal?”

There was logic in her words. Zac relaxed into the couch. “Yes. I can do that. You’re right. It’s been too short a time. I’m just rattled.” He sighed. “I’m three hundred and fifty years old,” he lamented. “You’d think I would have better control at my age.”

“Wait, what?” Skye yelped. 

Of course, an Elvin lifespan must seem insanely long to her. She was only fourteen.

Skye pulled her phone out of a pocket. “Oh, I am gonna yell at someone. Just as soon as I figure out who.”

Brett leaned out of the kitchen. “Everything okay?”

Skye paused, looking up from her phone. “Yeah, Dad. Zac just needed a minute." She looked back at the screen and shook her head. "Seriously. Every mission it’s ‘call in your report as soon as you’re done’ but the one time I actually want to talk to you...” She trailed off and looked back up. “Dad? Can we run out to campus real quick and get Zac’s stuff?”

He didn’t even hesitate at the abrupt request. “Sure, sweetie. Let me get my car keys.”

Skye pocketed her phone. Zac wondered who she’d been trying to contact, and why his age had made her so angry. Although she appeared calmly cheerful on the surface, he could feel the same icy rage that had driven her to nearly throttle Alex to death in the mall. 

Zac almost pitied whoever she intended to reach over that phone.