“Who?” Who even knew about this stuff, much less someone willing to work with a demon and messenger?

“There’s someone I know. Take my other arm. I’m going to take us the fast way to the car.”

“The car? Just take us to where she needs to go. She can’t wait for a drive. We don’t have the time, Kellan,” I cried out.

“I will take her, but you have to drive the car back to the sanctuary. We need it there.”

“Is it safe there still? They found us there before.” As I spoke to him, I touched his other arm, and Kellan whisked us back to the car on the edge of the road. It had never looked so human and normal to me than it did at that time.

Kellan gave me the keys and waited till I got inside, behind the wheel. He bent forward at the open window, still holding Aumae in his arms. “I won’t be long. I hope not. Go to the sanctuary. It’ll be safer now than it was before. Nothing can find it now. The trees have grown in height; they protect it. Trust me. That’s the part of it being a sanctuary. Once it’s been broken into, it’ll never be again.”

“Okay…” I still wasn’t sure, but he leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Go, Shay. You’ll be safe.”

I drove back, relying on memory. It seemed longer than the hours it had taken to get to the cave. It felt more like an entire day of driving, but when I pulled into the driveway, I wasn’t sure it was the right one. Nothing looked the same. In fact, I felt like I hadn’t even gone to the same place, but this was where the sanctuary should’ve been. And then the trees shifted in front of me and allowed me entry. I drove the car through. When I’d gone past the first line of trees, they quickly closed behind me, shutting everything out. No one would try to get past. I even saw a few trees lift up their roots and settle back down in a different spot.

Kellan was right. Nothing was the same. The waterfall was gone, but as I got out of the car, I could hear it. I knew it was there, but I could only see forest around me. Guessing where the house would be, I moved forward, looking for the front steps. A wind rushed forward, picking up some leaves and I was shown the path that led to the house. It went down instead of up, and I found the front door and went inside, I saw that it was an entirely new house. It had been built upward before. This new one was built in a circle, around the waterfall inside now. The kitchen and dining room opened to the pool of water, as did the living room to their right.

The roof didn’t look like a roof. It didn’t seem like there was even a closing, but I knew there was. There had to have been, and just then a bird tried to dip down, inside of the house. A thick glass barrier kept it out, zapping it away.

Everywhere I looked, the walls were thicker, sturdier. The windows moved for me, where I looked, they appeared. I finally chose a room on the first floor, underneath where the waterfall fell into the pool. It splashed up, but a glass wall formed over our hallway and connected to the door. The water slid down it, trickling back into the body of water. I sat there and watched it. It felt like I stayed there for another few hours before I jerked in place. I’d fallen asleep without realizing it. With a yawn coming over me, I looked up and saw the sky was dark through the glass roof. A few stars could be seen, but not many. It felt like a darker night than normal, and I figured there was no full moon, but that didn’t matter. What did matter was where Kellan and Aumae were, and when they were coming back.

After showering, then lying in bed for a while, I got back up. I couldn’t sleep, not until I knew where they were. Padding barefoot from the kitchen to the living room, I curled onto a couch and then reached for the remote control. I’d never been one for television, no one in my family had been. Humans were…entertaining enough to me, but before I turned on the machine I was distracted by a buzzing sound. I searched through some bags and then through a few kitchen cupboards until I found a cellphone vibrating in a small drawer. Kellan’s name was scrawled over the screen, and I answered it, “Hello?” That was when I realized I had no idea where mine had gone. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even used it.

“We’re coming back, and we have another guest.”

“How’s Aumae?” I didn’t even care about the other guest. Kellan wouldn’t bring anyone he didn’t trust. “When will you be here?”

“We’re turning in right now. How’s the new layout look?”

I heard laughter in his voice, and everything relaxed in me. It was then that I realized how much I depended on Kellan. Not too long ago, I hadn’t trusted him with what I painted and now I was fearful to step foot out of a house without him. Before I started pondering whether that was a good thing or not, I hurried to the door and flung it open when I saw a pair of headlights approaching underneath the trees. One lifted up its roots, and Kellan drove through, underneath to park beside our other car.

As he got out first, I came down and asked, “Where’d you get the new car? And why are you even driving?”

He flashed a grin and then opened his back door, bending inside. As he came back out, Aumae was in his arms. “I couldn’t transport as we normally would. She’s too weak, but she’s better. She needs to rest for a few days.”

Relief washed over me.

Kellan turned and nodded toward the passenger door. “And the car’s his. He decided to join us.”

Damien got out of the car and smiled at me. He stayed there and asked, cautious, “Is this okay? I don’t want to overstep my boundaries.”