I was exhausted and I didn't know how much further I could go before I collapsed. The world had been oddly quiet since Ethan left and not just because I missed his incessant bitching. No birds chirped and the constant drone of modern society was gone. I was so far away from the roads, I wouldn't have been able to hear a car crash. It was just the quiet of winter and my own thoughts nagging at the back of my mind.

  Despite finding Chase's phone and then the motorcycle at the bottom of the cliff, there was no other indication of where he could have gone. There was blood of course, and lots of it. Maybe he was actually dead, dragged off into the wilderness by wolves or something. For the third time today, I could feel tears streaming down my face. Damn feelings always getting in the way. I tried to harden myself, but out here, alone in the woods, there was no point in holding it in.

  As the sun began to set again, I sighed heavily and found somewhere to make a camp. I was already running low on supplies, probably not even enough to get back. I began to feel like I'd driven the final nail into my coffin out here. I should have listened to Ethan. There was no where to go out here. I was completely lost.

  I could hear my theítsa in the back of my mind scolding me, telling me I was just like my mother, reckless and impulsive. Foolish to chase after these Order Of Vigilance men. But there was something different about Chase Morgan. Through his brokenness, and all his pain, he still smiled at me. He actually went out of his way to make sure I was trained properly, and bound to my Artifacts. Every time I felt like we got closer, he pushed away, backing off. And now he was gone. Just like my mother.

  My father had never been there for me, running away like a coward after he had killed my mother, abandoning me to live without parents. But I imagined Chase was what having a real father felt like. He was an incredible mentor, and in my personal opinion at least, way better than Anders. I couldn't help but think that he might be gone forever.

  I leaned against a nearby tree and threw my pack off. I scrambled to set up my tent and tried to start a fire with some of the dry kindling I had been carrying around. The land here was too wet and not many of the trees were good for burning. It took a while, and eventually the darkness had crept up on me just when I got the fire going. I pulled some berries out of my travel bag and tried to snack to gain some energy back, but I felt sick. I threw my head back against the tree, throwing a berry into the fire.

  "What have I done? Why am I even still out here?" I whined to the wind, pulling my blanket around my shoulders. "Stupid Ethan was right."

  "Chase Morgan isn't as easily killed as you might think. But I fear he is in grave danger." A voice said from the darkness.

  I jumped to my feet and called to my bident, thrusting it into the face of the stranger who snuck up on me. He didn't flinch. He waved his hand, and ripples of red energy wrapped around my wrist and suddenly, my Artifact was gone.

  "Who are you? What do you want?" I backed up against the tree and screamed. I could see the man rolling his glowing blue eyes from under his large black hood.

  "We must move quickly if you wish to rescue Chase. Come." He motioned irritably. His voice was deep, his tone, impatient.

  "I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me who you are and how you know Chase Morgan." I called to my bident again, and as soon as it formed, he dismissed it again, sigh heavily.

  "Stop doing that." He hissed at me.

  "Answer me!" I shouted, daring to take a step forward. If I was going to die out here, it certainly wasn't going to be to some magical weirdo in the woods.

  "You are your father's child, that's for sure." He said, in a huff.

  "What do you know about my father?" I heard my determined voice crack after the mention of my treacherous parent.

  "A great deal actually. Quickly now, we must be off." He started walking back into the darkness, ignoring my questions entirely.

  "Wait! Please, just answer my questions." I cried out. The man turned, his electric blue eyes further into the darkness now, but glowing brightly.

  "I will answer your questions if you walk. Are you coming?" He motioned for me to follow. I pointed to my fire and camp set up.

  With another flick of his wrist, and a surge of blue sparkles, my stuff began to pack itself up. The tent disassembled and folded up neatly, and all of my equipment returned to my bag. And then a bubble of water erupted over the fire, plunging the world into complete darkness again.

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  "Shall we?" The man motioned, clearly eager to be gone.

  ~*~

  We walked a stretch of thick woods before decided to break the silence again.

  "So are you gonna answer my questions?"

  "You are a rather impatient child. I blame it on your upbringing." He scoffed.

  "Why do you say things like that? Like you know who I am?" I asked. He moved quickly, and I found myself slowly falling behind, stumbling over branches and stones.

  "Because I do. I know most people well. Better than they know themselves in some cases. I contain countless information on more things then I would care to admit. I am at least somewhat familiar with most of the active Chosen." He said, huffing as he hustled through the dark forest. I had to work extra hard to avoid the foliage with only my cellphone flashlight. "Here, let us play a game. You ask me one question, but then I get to ask you a question. We both must be truthful and trust me, I will know if you are lying." I heard him chuckle to himself. Like everything was one big inside joke to him.

  "Who are you?" I asked, without hesitating.

  "Merlin." He answered, matter-of-factly, almost like it should have been obvious. I immediately thought of the Disney rendition of Sword and the Stone. This dark cloaked enigma was nothing like that happy blue wizard.

  "My turn. Who are you?" I caught the glimmer of his glowing eyes as he looked back at me.

  "I'm Kalysta Kokinos. But you know that." I grimaced, but I doubted he saw it in this darkness. He shook his head and sighed.

  "Ah, but you are so much more than that, child."

  "Next question!" I demanded. "How do you know Chase, Merlin?" I said, mockingly. Not because I didn't believe him, but because he was being an ass.

  "He was my apprentice." His voice took a much darker tone then, as if the memory was jarring.

  "So Chase was the Sorcerer's Apprentice?" I began to visualize Chase as Mickey in a wizard hat and snorted with laughter.

  "That's another question my dear, and it's not your turn." He stopped and turned to face me. He was all dark cloak and glowing ominous eyes. "What do you know about your father?"

  "I know he abandoned my mother when I was an infant, and then when she returned to the Order, he killed her. I know they were both Chosen, on Anders and Chase's team." There goes those damn tears again, so I wipe them quickly and pretend my voice didn't crack.

  "Ah." His eyes closed for a long minute before he turned and began walking again, this time at a pace that allowed me to follow.

  "What do you know about my father?" I asked, dying to know what the mystical wizard of legend knew.

  "A lot. My turn." He said, avoiding my question and my gaze.

  "That's not fair. That's not a proper answer." I reached into my pocket and whipped a berry at his head. It hit an invisible barrier and bounced away.

  "It is quite the long story, and would cause an interruption to our game. Not to mention it's not my place to answer if you don't already know." He shrugged. "You can have a different question if you like."

  I sighed. No one would tell me. It was like I'd have to hunt down my father and pull all the answers from him before I killed him. So be it.

  "Why do we have to rescue Chase? Where is he?" I asked.

  "Now that's two questions. You truly are bad at this game." He chuckled.

  "Just answer me!" I shouted, throwing more berries at his force field.

  "We have to rescue him because he is in the clutches of Morgan le Fay, trapped in the castle at Camelot." He looked over his shoulder when I stopped walking.

  "You have to be fucking kidding me?" I shook my head in disbelief. Now I was almost certain this guy was a nut job.

  "Surely in your time with the Order, you've heard more absurd things? You Master is the last descendant of Arthur Pendragon." His glowing eyes widened in mock surprise.

  "Okay. All done. Goodbye Merlin."

  I didn't believe a goddamn word that freak was saying. All that bullshit Arthurian lore stuff. I could fight and kill monsters, maybe even people, Chase trained me for that. But he also taught me not to always believe everything at surface value. People lie.

  "I don't have time to play games with you Kalysta. We have to go!" It was the first time he'd raised his voice and it was a little rattling; filled with commanding presence. "Please don't make me force you."

  "Like hell you will!" I tried to summon my bident again. He sighed and rolled his eyes, and with a wave of his hand and a burst of green confetti, my weapon was a daffodil.

  "The fuck?" I growled, dropping the flower as it poofed away.

  "Last chance kid. We are going to help Chase whether you come with me willingly or not. I am too old to be babysitting." He began to trace runes into the air, which flowed and sparkled in a variety of colors. I began to float up into the air, and my body constricted against my will. I panicked as I started to feel like I was drowning.

  "Wait, wait! It's your turn for a question!" I gasped, trying to distract him.

  "Enough! I am going to tell you exactly what happens next. I am taking you with me to free Chase from the clutches of his horrid great, great, great, great grand mother...aunt...sister...whatever, and you are going to cooperate or so help me, I will turn you into a ferret and keep you in my pocket for a few centuries until you learn to behave. Are we clear?" His eyes flashed dangerously with magic.

  "Yes sir."

  "Much better!" He clapped his hands in the air and the runes disappeared. I gasped, catching my breath and shaking the feeling back into my limbs.

  "Will you at least tell me who my father is?" I panted out. "It's like it's the Order of Vigilance's biggest secret. I just want someone to be straight with me. Is he really some all powerful bad guy? Like come on..."

  Merlin whirled on me, hands raised, eyes flaring. He calmed almost immediately, seeing the pain on my face and sighed instead.

  "I will let Chase tell you, once we rescue him. It is best you hear it from him." He said, suddenly less energetic.

  "But what if he won't?" I sighed. "No one wants to tell me anything. Anders and Chase have been avoiding it."

  "I will make him tell you. Chase remembers what it was like to be a pocket ferret." Merlin chuckled.