Kaya gasped as a lone gust of wind passed through her in a room that was not meant to have any.

     Without a word, she looked up across the table where she had been studying the same books she had over the years, to Atticus. He had been speaking, but whatever words he had spoken left the moment the wind came through.     

     Her eyes squeezed shut as the force of the chant pressed inward. “She’s gone,” she whispered. “Selene…she’s really…”

     “I know.”

    Kaya opened her eyes and stared at the man across the desk. He was calm still, his eyes closed as if listening to something that she could not hear. She looked at the table before her where loose pages and old books were laid out haphazardly. She knew this day would be coming soon, but there was something about the moment being here after all these years that unsettled her.

     Atticus opened his eyes and looked directly at her while turning the ring on his finger. “You know what this means, Kaya.”

     “I do…”

     “Have you found the information you were looking for?”

     She looked back at the table and nodded. She had found what she could regarding the Echodex, though the book continued to be as illusive to the, as it had been to to The Order, having had no trace of it for years. But if Leah was now entering the Hollow, it meant that she had possession of it, which meant she needed to understand it.

     She had to admit that even she was nervous over the task of teaching her about her magic. Having been in hiding for so many years, even Kaya had not found a need to use her powers much and had learned basic healing magic from Maverick.

     “When she finds us,” Atticus started, “we will need to alert The Order.” 

   “What?!” Kaya’s head snapped back, her eyes widening with disbelief. Surely Atticus was not about to turn in the one hope they had of ridding the world of the Triarch?

   Atticus lifted his hands slowly in quiet command. “We must. For we cannot allow The Order to believe us traitors.”

     “Then what is the point of everything I’ve been doing for all these years?”

     “We will, of course, have given her plenty of time to escape safely.” He said calmly.

     Kaya stared, confused. 

   He turned away from her, walking toward the back wall of his office where a towering bookshelf held some of the oldest, most dangerous texts in his possession. His fingers trailed lightly along the spines as he moved.

     “I was told,” he said, “that she would not be alone.”

     Kaya frowned slightly. “What?”

   “That when the time came,” he continued, “she would be traveling with someone capable of protecting her. Someone capable of guiding her out when the moment required it.” He stopped at the far end of the shelf. “I was also told,” Atticus added, more quietly now, “not to underestimate him.”

     Kaya stepped forward slightly, unease replacing the last of her anger.

     “Who?” she asked.

     Atticus turned his head just enough to glance back at her.

     “He has been nothing but a ghost until now,” Atticus said. “One of The Order’s elite assassins.”

     Kaya’s breath caught. “No,” she said under her breath, more to herself than to him. “That’s not possible. He’s—”

     “Dead?” Atticus finished. “That is what the order believes.”

     Kaya stared at him as realization began to take shape even in her disbelief.

     “And yet,” he said turning to her, his voice certain in a way that allowed no room for doubt, “Selene trusted him with her final promise.”

     Kaya’s pulse spiked. “She wouldn’t have,” Kaya said quickly. “Not with him. Not after what he—”

     “She would,” Atticus interrupted softly, “if she believed he was the only one capable of doing what needed to be done.”

     Silence fell between them.

     “…You’re saying he’s alive,” Kaya said slowly.

     “And so…” Atticus replied, “if Selene’s chant has reached us…” His gaze held hers. “…then it has reached him.”

     Kaya’s voice dropped to almost a whisper.

    “Nico.”