“I’m not sure what we’re gonna see once we go in here,” Nix said, sliding her key into the lock.

  We were standing on the front steps of a plain-looking red brick house. I stood on the step below her, watching the street. Nothing seemed out of place. I gave her a short nod, and she opened the door. We walked into a silent foyer.

  “Okay, my room is at the top of the stairs. Let’s go grab my stuff and hit the road.”

  She was moving up the steps as she spoke. I followed her, scanning the area. The white walls were bare, the dark hardwood floors shiny and spotless. It looked like a model home, untouched.

  “Are you sure this is the right house?”

  Nix chortled from in front of me.

  “Yes, my parents are just really serious about keeping the house clean and in order.”

  I could tell. There was no evidence to suggest anyone had ever lived in this house. Nix opened her bedroom door, and the smell of her perfume filled the air before I even got to it. I had to take a deep breath as I walked in.

  The walls were midnight blue with white trim. The bed itself was covered in a black comforter with white speckles all over it.

  “This makes sense for you.”

  “Yeah, I was an interior decorator in a previous life,” she said, smiling back at me.

  The room wasn’t messy, but a few things were out of place. Her closet door was wide open. There was a denim skirt lying in the center of her otherwise neatly made bed.

  Nix pulled a wheeled suitcase out of her closet and tossed it on the bed. She moved like a hurricane, flinging drawers open and tossing piles of clothes inside. I helped out by organizing it so that everything fit. When she looked back and saw that I was out of room, she plopped a second one beside it and kept going.

  I looked over at her dresser and noticed something in one of her now empty drawers. It was a leather-bound book. I picked it up, and a white rectangle slipped from its pages. I picked it up off the floor and turned it over. It was a photo of Nix and me. She had taken it the year before.

  “I didn’t know you had this picture.”

  Nix froze at the sound of my words. She turned around eerily slow to look at me. When she saw the picture in my hand, she turned beet red.

  “Did you read my diary?” she asked, moving toward me slowly.

  I held up the book.

  “This is your diary? Am I in it?”

  She dove at me, clawing at the book as I held it out of her reach as best I could. We both giggled as she climbed all over me to get her precious words. I stretched out, holding the book as far off her bed as I could manage. She flattened out on top of me, reaching for it. The sensation of her body against mine sent lightning through my core. If she kept this up much longer, things were going to get awkward.

  “Young lady!” A deep male voice boomed from above us.

  It startled us so badly we both jumped to our feet. A tall, muscular white man with salt and pepper hair stood in her doorway. His dark blue suit looked handmade and expensive.

  “Da-” she started, before he cut her off

  “What the hell were you just doing?” He barked at her.

  She flinched at his words. Her eyes dropped to the floor. His gaze shifted to me. First, disgust twisted his mouth, but then understanding passed over his face and his eyes widened. Blue electricity cracked around him as he bolted straight at me. In a flash, he was in front of me, reaching for my throat.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I countered with one of the moves Nix had taught me. I grabbed his wrist and twisted my body. My momentum sent him hurtling over my shoulder and across the bed. His power scorched a deep, jagged chasm through Nix’s bed. He landed on the floor next to her bed with a crash. Too bad Typhon’s Coil didn’t send him flying like that. The thought sent a wave of guilty glee through me.

  “Fuck Stormie, run!” She shouted, snatching up her suitcases.

  We dashed out of her room and bolted down the stairs. When we got back to the foyer, her mom appeared in a curl of black smoke. We both skidded to a stop.

  “Were you planning to leave and not say goodbye, Phoenix?”

  Her mom was thin and pale-skinned with the same midnight blue eyes that Nix sometimes had. Her black dress was long and elegant. She stood in front of the front door with her hands on her hips.

  “I would’ve called eventually,” Nix said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

  Her dad ran down the steps and joined us. Nix positioned herself between him and me. I clenched my hands into fists, ready to strike if I needed to.

  “You brought it into our house. We raised you better than that,” her dad said.

  He stepped toward me with electricity dancing in his sky-blue eyes. I didn’t know exactly how powerful he was, but I wouldn’t hold back if he attacked me.

  “The storm does not show mercy,” Typhon agreed.

  “He’s a person just like the rest of us. Stop judging him because the wrong primordial is his parent. None of us got that choice,” Nix said.

  Her fists were balled so tightly as she spoke, I thought she might throw a punch. Her mom folded her arms over her chest.

  “So that’s it. You chose it over your oath?”

  Nix looked devastated at the question.

  “Is that what you’re upset about, me not fulfilling my oath?”

  She clutched her chest with her right hand, and the smallest ripple passed through her chin before I took her in my arms. They didn’t deserve her tears. She buried her face in my shoulder and silently sobbed. I glared into her parents’ cold, apathetic eyes. Yet, somehow I was still the monster in their eyes.

  “This doesn’t bother you at all?” I asked her father.

  He narrowed his eyes on me.

  “Which part, her theatrics or the fact that she’s allowing you to contaminate her with your touch?”

  His question hit me like a kick in the chest. He seriously didn’t feel bad about his daughter crying in front of him. It should be his shoulder she was leaning on. Anger made my skin heat.

  “Phoenix, you know I hate seeing you in pain. Please let us help you.”

  Nix looked up at her mother, her face glossy with tears.

  “It’s too late. They already sent a collection squad after me.”

  “And you resisted?” her mom asked with an appalled look on her face. “Why not give in and hope for leniency?”

  “Of course I resisted. Why would I willingly let them execute me, Mom?” Nix asked.

  The word mom sounded like a curse when it left Nix’s mouth. Her mom gasped.

  “Well, Phoenix, you knew the cost before you chose this,” her mom said, wagging a finger in my direction.

  Nix’s look turned from despair to anger. She was done crying. She picked up the handle of her suitcase.

  “We’re leaving. Please don’t try to stop us. I won’t hesitate to hurt either of you now that I know my life doesn’t matter to you,” Nix said.

  “That’s not true. You’re being dramatic,” her dad said as they stepped aside and let us walk out.

  “Phoenix, please reconsider what you’re doing. He’s a monster. Don’t let him ruin your life,” her mom called to us as we descended the steps to the street.

  Nix stopped and looked back at her mom with a resolute smile on her face.

  “He’s more human than either of you.”

  She tossed her house keys to her dad. He caught them in mid-air.

  “I won’t be needing those anymore.”

  We walked back to the train station in silence. I glanced over at her and she was crying again. When I reached out to touch her, she shook her head.

  “I just need to get this out.”

  I left her alone even though I desperately wished I could make her feel better. While we were on the train, she rested her head on my shoulder. Still crying, still not speaking. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the suitcase handle, clinging to a life that never existed.

  “I’m really sorry they were who you thought they were.” I said.

  She looked up at the sky and let out an empty laugh.

  “Yeah, I knew exactly how they were going to be. I’m so dumb for letting it bother me like this.”

  I grabbed her arm and stopped her from walking.

  “You are not dumb. You deserve better than them, and I promise to do what I can to show you that every day from now on.”

  She smiled and hugged me.

  “You already do.”

  We walked the rest of the way to my house in silence. Her grief trailed closely behind her like a third suitcase. We walked into my house and my parents shocked us by being in the hall.

  “Welcome home!” they both yelled.

  My dad blew a noisemaker, and my mom popped a confetti popper. Nix’s face lit up, the smile forcing the earlier pain into the background.