There was pain and sound and the sensation of being bodily lifted into the air and crashed in debris. For a disorienting heartbeat, Mallory wondered if she was back in that moment beneath the stairs. If everything that had happened since then had been some strange dream her dying mind had conjured. Her hearing was a soft buzz, shifting to a high squeal as the sounds of the world around her shifted back into focus. There was the crackling of fire and the creak of shifting wood. Fire!? Mallory gasped, trying to open her eyes, but she hurt all over and it took effort. She pushed something off, not bothering to identify what it had once been a part of. Debris.

          It was like a bomb had gone off a floor beneath them. She pushed herself to her feet, blinking up at the night sky where a roof had once been. Smoke curled into the air, burning her lungs. She could hear people shouting outside, could hear screaming somewhere nearby. Eliza. Eliza was screaming.

          And then the screaming stopped.

          Before she could fully grasp what was happening, arms gripped her tight and pulled her, shifting her into greyspace. She blinked, reorienting herself again, staring hard at flames that burst forth and engulfed her. She pulled back, gasping, but the flames were insubstantial, grey, passing over her like smoke. The sound of Eliza screaming returned.

          The arms helped her to stand. Looking up, she saw that it was Samanda steadying her. “What happened?” Mallory asked.

          “I’m not sure. We were asleep. Sampson should have been on watch.” She stepped back from Mallory, studying her carefully as she lifted her arms away, looking ready to grab her if she looked unsteady. Once she seemed satisfied that Mallory was fine by herself, she nodded and looked down into the hole. “Stay here,” Samanda commanded. She jumped down into the hole.

          Frowning, Mallory moved to the edge, looking down. Eliza’s cries cut out again. “Fuck that,” Mallory murmured to herself, trying to find an easy path down. After a moment, she recalled her previous time in greyspace and everything they had been told about it. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to slip into the flooring beneath her.

          When it happened, she could feel the floor passing through her. She gasped, wondering how Eliza had managed to walk through a wall. As she lost her focus, the floor lost it’s hold on her and she fell, flailing wildly with a shout of surprise. The ground floor caught her – she hit it, hard, a soft “oof!” escaping her lungs.

          But the damage hadn’t come from the ground floor. It went down further. “Oh for fuck’s sake,” she grumbled to herself. This time she decided to jump. Eliza’s house had a basement, and a nice one at that – Michael had used it as his teenaged escape den often. Mallory remembered that it had been furnished with an old couch with failing springs that was almost uncomfortable to sit in, a large TV and several gaming systems. He’d also had loads of board games, a table to play them at, and a mini fridge loaded with his favorite energy drinks and sodas. The basement was such a blown in mess that Mallory couldn’t tell if any of that stuff had been left untouched by his parents. She gaped at the ruins of the basement. What had caused this?

          She could see Samanda leaning down over Isaac’s body, and started to jog over to help when she caught sight of Eliza out of the corner of her eye. She was also sprawled on the ground, still in her pajamas, one arm up over her head as though she had tried to protect herself. Mallory turned on her heel, instantly moving toward her friend instead.

          Something like the shadow of a very tall man stepped forward. At first, Mallory wasn’t sure if it was even really there. Glinting silvery eyes shifted up, narrowing as it caught sight of her. Mallory felt that same chill from the Miller house – the absolute hatred in that gaze. Her steps almost faltered as it glared at her, and then its gaze shifted down to Eliza. A blade glinted in its hands, as silvery as the eyes. Mallory found herself bending into an all-out sprint as it regarded her friend. Not Eliza! The words shrieked through her brain. Without any hesitation, Mallory tackled the shadow.

          She half expected to simply dive through it, but it was surprisingly solid to the touch, and ice cold. She hissed as she felt the chill seep into her skin, her fingers freezing so badly that she felt like her nerve endings were on fire. It grunted softly at the impact, being pushed back a few steps but not going down. It looked down at her, pulling her closer, almost as though to hug her.

          Mallory had thought touching it was unpleasant, but it was nothing compared to the searing, almost soul-wrenching pain of the knife.

          It turned into quite a fun night. They ordered out for some food, and while they perused their options, Eliza was an unending litany of questions. She seemed to want to know every mundane thing there was to know about Isaac, and graciously didn’t want to let the Sams feel left out either. They discussed favorite foods, and least favorite foods. Eliza let them look over the board and card games her parents kept in the den while they discussed childhood games Isaac and the Sams played when they were younger. Eliza talked about growing up with Michael, and how she had met Mallory in elementary school. “Really? You saved her from bullies?” Isaac said with a laugh.

Mallory nodded solemnly. “It’s true. I usually tried to ignore them, but Eliza saw what was happening and screamed her head off at them.”

“And that worked?” Sampson asked.

“No,” Eliza said. She laughed, hiding her face in her hands. “It completely backfired, I just pissed them off, and they were older, way bigger, and they tried beating me up. But that’s when Mallory stepped in. She would never raise a hand to help herself against them, but she was very willing to protect someone else.”

“And you’ve been friends since?” Isaac asked. Eliza and Mallory both nodded.

Isaac was an only child, but had always had the Sams trailing as bodyguards, and grew up very close to his cousins.

          “Really? Triplets?” Eliza asked, sounding horrified as Isaac mentioned his cousins.

          “Yes, but not identical. They’re all completely different, and you’d never guess they were brothers, let alone that they shared a womb,” Isaac chuckled. “But I love them each for their eccentricities.”

          They played some games, and ate the food when it came. Then since it was still very warm for September, they played in the pool briefly before piling into the house. They took turns showering and dressing down into pajamas. They stayed up late talking.

          Sampson disappeared at some point to take his turn at watch, the only sign that anything about their presence was unusual. Mallory drifted off, leaning against Eliza as she and Isaac continued to softly talk late into the night. This actually was a lot of fun, she thought to herself briefly.

Eliza grimaced but didn’t argue. Since they were going to relocate to Eliza’s house anyways, they all left the motel shortly after. They piled into Mallory’s car for the drive. As they pulled into the driveway, Eliza turned to look at the three of them pressed into the backseat. “I’m not sure how I’m going to explain this to my parents,” she said, looking mildly distressed.

“The best part is you won’t have to,” Sampson said, flashing an impish grin as he vanished.

Samanda laughed at the expression on Eliza’s face. She met Mallory’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Sorry for scaring you the other day,” she said. “You’re fast on your feet for a mortal.” And she disappeared as well.

Isaac sat in the middle of the backseat, smiling warmly at Eliza. “We’ll do our best to respect your privacy, and won’t enter your home unless you invite us or unless we think you’re in danger. If you need me, open your window and say my name. I’ll be there in a heartbeat.” And then he disappeared as well. Eliza was still twisted in her seat, her lips thinned as she stared at the now empty back seat.

“Do you want me to stay the night again?” Mallory offered.

Eliza sighed. “No, I suppose I’m safer than I have been all summer.” She turned to face Mallory and smiled, lowering her voice. “I’m glad they’re not bad after all.”

Mallory wasn’t sure that she felt like they weren’t bad, but they at least seemed a hell of a lot less threatening than they had the previous day. “Me too.”

Eliza leaned forward and whispered, “He took me to the moon and kissed me.”

“Oh? Way to go, Isaac,” Mallory grinned, but inwardly she was a little shocked. Even despite what they had said about the properties of their alternate dimension, she hadn’t thought that they could travel off world. For a moment, she jealously wondered what the Earth looked like from space, in person – even with the color leached, she felt that it must have been an amazing sight. Perhaps she should have let Sampson pull them along after all. Eliza grinned and reached for the car door handle. “Hey, Eliza,” Mallory said as she started to exit the vehicle. Eliza paused, glancing back at her. “I know you’re in good hands. But be careful.”

Eliza smiled reassuringly at her and nodded. Mallory watched as she went into the house, practically bouncing up the front steps to her door. Mallory wondered how long she’d wait before calling for Isaac from the window.

With a sigh, Mallory backed out of the driveway and drove back home.

Samanda chuckled. “Our society has been a little separated from yours. Modern mortals and their lives are a bit of a mystery, so this has been an indulgence.”

Mallory sighed. Imagine enrolling in high school for fun. Where did they live that they were so out of touch with “modern mortals?” Mallory didn’t want to touch that line of questioning yet, so she went with something much more mundane. “Are the two of you twins or not?” she asked the Sams.

“Not,” they replied in unison.

Sampson grinned at Mallory’s doubting expression. “We’re very close in age, and come from the same… I suppose you’d say tribe? But we’re not family. She’s only about a week older than I am. We’ve spent our entire lives being raised together, for one mission.” He nodded toward Isaac. Samanda’s expression remained carefully neutral as Sampson explained.

“So what now?” Eliza asked.

“Well,” Isaac paused, considering. “We know that you’re the target of this shadow hunter, or at least that it’s very interested in you. I think instead of trying to track it down, we’ll have better luck spending our time watching you.”

“All the time?” Eliza seemed a little alarmed at the thought. Mallory didn’t blame her – they could go invisible. How closely were they planning to watch her?

“Most of the time. We can stay in greyspace and set up a parameter near your home, and we know when you go to school,” Isaac said, not entirely picking up on Eliza’s embarrassment.

“We won’t have to operate out of this dingy motel room at least,” Samanda said.

“Or drive that shitty car,” Sampson added.

“I quite like the car. It has character,” Samanda said.

Sampson groaned. “You weren’t the one driving. That thing barely functions. I was holding it together with magic.”

“If you guys are magical otherworldly beings, how were you even paying for a motel room? Or a car? Or gas?” Eliza asked.

Isaac looked a bit sheepish. “Magic,” he said simply.

“Magic?” Eliza frowned.

Sampson and Samanda exchanged an amused look. “The motel owner keeps the room open for us, acknowledges us when he sees us, and then conveniently forgets to record the room as occupied or collect payment. When we’re gone, he won’t remember us, and it will be like we were never here,” Samanda explained.

“And we just spirited away the car from some hoarder’s yard. It was packed with other vehicles. They probably don’t even know it’s gone,” Sampson said.

“As for gas, technology is a bit difficult to trick with magic. But we can always find a kind person to pay for us,” Samanda said.

“So you’re stealing?” Eliza said, very nearly clicking her tongue in distaste. Mallory grinned.

“Borrowing. Harmlessly,” Samanda said smoothly, grinning.

Isaac had been leaned in close to Eliza, speaking to her softly as the rest of them talked. He gripped her by the elbow gently, and they suddenly seemed to float, drifting just off the ground before flickering like an afterimage, a lingering trail of light indicating their absence. Mallory pointed at where they had been standing. “What the fuck?” she asked, a bit flabbergasted.

“He was demonstrating a little more of what we can do. Since we’re not bound to your dimension’s physics, traveling can be done quickly. Not instantaneous, but fast – further distances take a little longer.” Sampson reached for her again, and she pulled back slightly. He smiled and offered his hand. “If we’re quick, I can grip the trail of his magic and we can follow them.”

Mallory hesitated a moment and then shook her head. “I think they wanted to be alone.”

Sampson glanced at Samanda, looking a little agitated. “We’re not really supposed to leave him alone for long.”

Mallory frowned. “Why, are you his bodyguards or something?” Samanda raised an amused eyebrow. Mallory paused as they stared at her and then nodded, catching on. Of course. He was a prince.

The point was quickly moot as Eliza and Isaac reappeared, almost as quickly as they had disappeared. Eliza was staring directly into his eyes, looking completely enamored. “You’re not supposed to go far from us, Isaac,” Samanda said softly. He shrugged, grinning a bit sheepishly, flushing faintly. Mallory wondered for a moment what they had done in the moment they had stolen alone, and stared hard at her friend. She refused to make eye contact, but was smiling softly, obviously pleased.

Sampson patted Mallory softly on the back, and the world came back in full color. She noted that she did feel somehow heavier here as well. The others also blinked into existence into the room. “I have so many questions I don’t know where to start,” Eliza said as she settled on the edge of one of the beds.

“I’m willing to answer whatever you want to ask,” Isaac said.

“I know where I want to start,” Mallory said, still standing. Isaac glanced up at her, almost like she had been a second thought to him. He smiled accommodatingly, waiting for her question. “Why are you here? What brings a fairy prince to the middle of bumfuck nowhere?”

Isaac’s expression darkened slightly. “I was following the figure you spotted in the abandoned house. We knew it had taken up residence somewhere around here.”

“It,” Mallory quoted, frowning. “What is it? Why is it important for you to find it?”

“A shadow hunter. A golem.” Isaac glanced at Eliza briefly, but then met Mallory’s gaze levelly. “They’re usually created as assassins. The magic required to create one is significant, so whenever one is about, something bad will happen. Guaranteed.” He frowned slightly, thoughtfully studying Eliza. “I don’t know why it would be following a human so obsessively, but if you’re important in some way, we’ll have to protect you.”

Eliza shivered, shifting closer to Isaac so that their shoulders were touching. “How did you know it was here?” Mallory felt mildly jealous that she was seeking protection from Isaac instead of her. She frowned, uncertain why she felt that way.

“As I mentioned… they require a significant amount of magic to create. Back home, there is a moirai that advises our ruler…”

“Moirai?” Mallory asked.

“A… wise woman? A fate watcher. They’re creatures with a significant amount of magic imbued in their very beings, magic that allows them to see the threads of fate, the many possible futures. She sent me on this mission, and gave me this,” Isaac lifted his hand as he spoke, flashing a ring that looked like a simple silver band. “It allows me to sense when I am close to the creature.”

“So you followed it here to hunt it down. Why enroll in the school?”

Isaac flushed faintly. “Well, we could sense that it had been lingering around the school. Perhaps following your friend.”

Mallory studied his slightly embarrassed expression and realized that wasn’t entirely the case. Finally, Sampson added, “And because it seemed fun.”

“Well, that too,” Isaac admitted, the tips of his ears going red.

“School. Fun.” Mallory’s tone was completely deadpan. “Okay.”