VEE

The farmhouse should bring familiarity but is devoid of everything we had. The people who return are carrying heavier burdens than when they left and have nothing to return to.

"Is it safe to enter?" I ask as we stare at the building. From the outside, there’s little difference, the front of the building intact. I look up to the broken window Xander jumped through and my pulse picks up at the memory.

We step inside, to a different place than the one we left. The walls are covered in black, the stairs missing. Some furniture is half-burnt and the rest gone. The guys, as usual, don’t care about minor things like safety. Joss picks his way across the blackened floor until he reaches the kitchen. The room is gutted, everything inside unrecognisable.

"I should’ve put the fire out in the study the moment I saw it." Joss moves to stand in where the doorway once was, and his upset reaches me. Everything. Gone. All the books, all the notes. All he uses to research and help.

The acrid smell inside the house’s shell sticks to my clothes and I hold my hand across my nose, not wanting to breathe anything in. Heath joins us and we all stare helplessly at the room. I don’t want to see anywhere else.

"Where did Xander go?" I ask. "He hasn’t tried to go upstairs, I hope."

"No. There’s no way up there anymore. The rooms are burnt out."

"I’m guessing you didn’t have an insurance policy," I say with a small smile.

Ewan blinks at me. "Why are you flippant? This is a huge problem!"

"You think?" I snap back.

"Guys..." Joss touches both our arms. "At least we all survived."

"What was the dog doing here?" I ask.

"Why did he run into a burning building is the bigger question," replies Heath. "And when he ran, he was unscathed."

"Perhaps hellhounds hate elementals?" suggests Heath.

"Perhaps it doesn’t matter, just that he saved Xander."

I chew my lip. I’m relieved the conversation has switched from me, but I can’t stay in here. "I’m headed outside."

The way across the kitchen involves picking through broken items and twisted metal. How intense was this fire? Outside, Xander sits on the wooden bench, the place we occasionally go to clear our heads when the weather allows.

He looks up as I approach. "I never found anything around the grounds or house. I thought Seth might’ve left us a message, as he always likes to."

"We’re sure it’s Seth who sent the elemental?"

Xander looks in confusion. "Um. Yeah. Haven’t you noticed how much fire is used against us?"

"True." I sit next to Xander and take his hand. "Everything will be alright."

He stares ahead. "I should be the one reassuring you."

"You need to process this."

"How can you be so calm?" He still doesn’t look at me, but his clammy hand tightens against mine.

"Because we haven’t lost yet. And there won’t be a yet. I agree, prophecies are bullshit." He turns to see my weak smile, but I only half-believe what I’m saying.

The other three guys appear and we gather around each other in the bleak weather. "We need to find the where and when," says Joss. "We need to know everything we can find in that book."

"I think even if he causes storms and opens all the portals, that’s not enough to cause the devastation he wants," replies Heath. "Yes, it will fuck up the world and lead to a lot of human death, but Chaos wants to actually destroy everything."

Xander stands. "I’m not having the fucker think he’s beaten us and won the first round by destroying a house. He hasn’t destroyed us, and he’s tried long enough. Despite everything, we know more than him. We regroup, and we track him. I don’t know how, but we will."

"Then what?"

Xander looks ahead and says in a quiet voice. "When we’re ready, we end this."

The house may be gone, along with everything the guys own, but more than our house has been destroyed in recent days. The undercurrent of distrust, and the need to hide secrets from each other left with him. The only thing that can help now is total unity.

Xander’s right. We will win.

But something stirs in the pit of my stomach. The strange sensation that I fought in the past—the one wanting me to end my emotional connection to the guys and the world.

The part of me designed to end Chaos, and now, myself.