I flash a look to Boon. "Don't alert E.J, yet. Please."

Then, even though my instincts are screaming against it, I approach the spirit shells.

"Who are you?" I hiss, throwing a glance over my shoulder. "How are you doing this?"

"I don't know exactly how it works. There's a sigil I don't recognize carved into the stone on this side. My scouts saw your mother and friend talking to you through it, and I found that I could do it too. As for who I am, well...I could give you my name, but it'd mean nothing to you. I'm a knight, in service to the lord of this isle. And your mother's been sowing chaos here. Hurting our people."

"A...a knight? Please give me a name. What is she doing? What do you want from me, and why are you trying to help me?" I ask the questions in a whispered rush, worried that at any moment, someone else will show up and this voice will vanish like my mother's and Leon's did.

"My name is Variad. We believe your mother seeks to return to your side of the Gate, using you as the energy exchange. Between the followers she already had here and the people she's made thralls with that wretched sigil, she's amassed a small army. I'm the one who's been tasked with hunting her."

It takes me a moment to realize that I've clamped my hand over my mouth, barely blinking as I listen.

"And I want an exchange. I help you get your friend back, you help me get rid of your mother."

Letting my hand down, I check behind me again before looking back to the Dragon-Stag. "What do you need me to do, and how do I know I can trust you?" As I talk, Mittens slinks up to the nearest dragon-stag, sniffing about at its base. When the voice issues from it again, she jumps backwards, ears pressing down.

"I don't expect you to trust me. All I can do is give you the information and make my request. You must decide what to do. But I beg that you help us. Your mother-"

"Is the worst, I know. Alright, then, what's on your side of the Gate? What is your world?"

There's a long silence. "It's not my world, just the world I'm in—and so I can't answer that. It is a violation."

So it is the Spirit Realm, then. "What can you tell me? Do you have physical bodies there? Is it really possible for you to come back?"

Another pause. "I can give you information regarding the humans of this side, and things humans here have made—but only where it doesn't intersect with Unspoken things. Yes, those who crossed through the gate have physical bodies, as do their descendants. Yes, it is possible to return, but only with an exchange of equal value."

I check over my shoulder to make sure Boon's recording. He is. After sniffing around the other spirit shell for a bit, Mittens scampers over to clamber back into my bag.

"So what exactly do I have to do?"

"To bring someone back to your side from ours? There is a linking sigil. You must find someone to exchange, and mark both them and the person you wish to bring back with the sigil. When the exchange crosses through the gate, the other will be able to return."

I frown, retracting a fang from my already raw lower lip. "Then how can my mother hope to return using me, if I'm not marked by this sigil? And why does she need me, specifically?"

"She has marked your spirit with the sigil. Easy enough to do, as it exists on this side of the Gate already. The body is but a conduit. As for her reasoning—firstly, she has a bargaining chip. Or was that man with her not truly your friend?"

I swallow, hesitating. "He...he is."

"Secondly, you're Stormstruck. That's an immense amount of Umbral energy. She could bring back many of her followers using you."

"How...how do you know I'm Stormstruck?"

"I can see your spirit," he says. "In any case, you should know that your mother managed to take this location, briefly. She had control of it when last your people came through the gate. Normally, we'd have gathered them. But her people took them instead."

I suck air in through my teeth.

"So, to bring Leon and the others back, I'd need an exchange. But how are you expecting me to help you? Are you proposing I exchange myself so you can get rid of her? Just set her loose on our side again?"

"We'll lure her back to the gate, using you, then capture her. The exchange has to take place within fifteen months of the first crossing, and she's running out of time. Desperate. Once we have her, we can find out where your friends are. Free our people. And the-"

His voice breaks off, then devolves into words I don't recognize. Curses, from the way he spits them.

"We're being attacked. I must-"

And then the spirit shell goes silent.

"Variad?" I call, frustration and panic drawing me to my feet as I reach out to grasp the nearest one. "Variad!"

But when the spirit shell speaks again, the voice is its own.

"I really, really wish they'd stop doing that," huffs the stone dragon-stag. "These are my shells, after all."

~*~

"What I don't understand is—if there really is a way of getting back through, why haven't we heard of anyone actually doing it?"

I peer at E.J. across her living room coffee table, her brows knit, eyes narrowed and fingers laced together as we finish our second listen-through of Boon's recording. For a moment, I'm not sure she's even registered my question.

"There are a lot of possible reasons that could be," she murmurs after a moment, eyes far away. "But the foremost that concerns me is that none of this is actually true." She shakes her head, running her hand down across her face. The motion spreads her scent, and for a moment I have to hold my breath. Have to stay focused.

"Suspicious, that he was cut off right before explaining any sort of plan to help you return. I don't trust any of it," she goes on, leaning back and looking out the wide window to her left.

"I don't either, necessarily. But isn't there a good chance there was at least some reality to it? Aren't the best lies based on the truth?"

Her gaze skirts back to me. "There's a chance."

I lean forward, unable to contain the thought any longer.

"There's a dragon-stag on this island. a Stormstruck one."

E.J.'s eyes go wide, her full attention on me now.

"That could be an equal exchange for me, couldn't it? I could go over there, lure my mother in, then use myself as the exchange to send our people back once she's captured. And then you can trade the stag for me."

"There's a Stormstruck dragon-stag. On this island."

"Yes," I reach our across the table to take her hand, then think better of it—letting my palm rest on the cold stone between us instead. "It was drawn to me, I think. Maybe it could be again. I would feel bad about doing that to it, though...not knowing what it's like on the other side."

E.J.'s nostrils flare, and she's looking away from me again. Out over the lush forest. "We've learned a lot about them, since we began things here-the shifters who settled this island and their descendants. Of what they held sacred." She meets my eyes again. "Of those things, the closest I would call to a god to them was a Stormstruck dragon-stag. A being they had many names for. A being they revered."

"Oh," I whisper, at an almost complete loss for words. "Wow."

"A dragon-stag," she presses on, "in a perpetual state of Static Trance."

Now it's my turn to stare.

"Was the one you saw-"

I nod. "Yes. It was incredible."

Sighing, E.J. stands—a hand returning to her already wild hair. "I need time to process this. Time to figure out how to prove or disprove any of it and what to actually do about it. In the meantime, there are two things I need from you."

I go statue-still as she stares down at me from her full height, a hard look in her eyes.

"I need you to focus on school. On controlling and developing and improving your own capabilities. That's how you'll be of help to the ones you care about. Not by tossing yourself at the problem like a sacrificial lamb. Which leads me to the second need."

She drops to her knees beside me, and a memory from the Black Moon Festival flashes before my eyes.

"Remember your promise. Wait until we have this figured out. Do not go through the Gate."

I hold her gaze, my hands trembling now where they twist in my lap.

“But we only have a few more months before the time for exchange is up. Then she won’t need Leon anymore, and-"

E.J. reaches out to grab my hand, squeezing it in both her own.

"I know. But I'm asking you to give me a chance to figure this out. There's still time."

When I just nod, she sighs and gets back to her feet.

"You can sleep up here on the couch tonight, if you like. Until the room issue is resolved. Lore let me know about your...issue. Just bring up your new friend's litter box. You can put it in the small bathroom."

I balk, warmth finally returning to my cheeks. "Lore? But how—"

"You're not exactly hard to read, Ash. Not for a Crimson, at least. And don't worry, I've got my room set up to lock from the outside. Somi's got control of it. So even if there is a storm…"

"I wasn't worried about it."

E.J. turns back just enough to frown at me for that, before huffing off and returning a few moments later with a small pile of sheets, pillows, and blankets. Reaching for my crocheted bag, I peer down at the little rabbit-fox. "I'll be right back. Try not to pee on anything while I'm gone, ok?"

I'm on my way out, hand halfway to the door handle, when E.J. calls out to me.

"Oh, and Ash?"

I turn to look over my shoulder at her. "Yes?"

"If you still have that perfume I gave you, I'd appreciate you wearing it when you're around me. If you don't mind. I may not have it as bad as you do with Lorelei, but I'm not as acclimated to your scent as I used to be."

"Right," I say before opening the door.

"Wouldn't want to be too tempting," I grumble after shutting it behind me.