"What about Evelyn?" asked Ikovos.

I swallowed.

"What do you mean?" replied Jaden.

"Will you tell her?"

My face narrowed, but I didn't hear anything. He must have responded with a nod or a shake.

Darn it!

Unable to stand it, I turned around and bent up, peeking my head above the hole.

"If something starts with Demian . . . the lodge won't be safe for her."

That was Ikovos. I saw them now, they were sitting across from each other on a benched table. Two drinks in front of them, the window behind.

"It never has been," said Jaden tersely. It was too dim to see his expression clearly, but he looked out towards the window.

"It'll be worse."

Another pause.

"It's not our decision," said Jaden.

"That didn't stop you before."

My breath hit the wood in front of me.

Jaden looked to him. "It's different now that she can use magic. Master Thoran will be more involved."

"Like their meeting." Ikovos scoffed.

Jaden's head bobbed. "Yeah . . ."

"She knows about the other boys for sure," said Ikovos, folding his hands together and leaning forward on his elbows.

"And us?" His head was down now. My eyes widened.

Curse it, Evelyn, this is not the type of conversation you eavesdrop on.

"She would have acted differently," began Ikovos. "She doesn't know. . . . She might be assuming we're no different than the others, though."

"It's better that way." He was staring hard at the table. "Let's just drop it tomorrow."

If I'd had something in hand I would have thrown it at him.

Ugh! I can't take this anymore.

"I'm good with that," said Ikovos.

Then they both took drinks from their mugs. Finished That is until I placed my hands firmly on the table.

"We need to talk." I said it clearly, and leaned in with a bold pose to match. Jaden responded first.

"What are you doing here?"

"Were you listening?" Ikovos quickly followed.

"Yes . . ." I couldn't think up a good defense ". . . and I know it was wrong. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to at first. I was just walking past."

Jaden's gaze turned livid. "Walking past? . . ." uh-oh ". . . Alone?"

"What did you hear?" asked Ikovos, saving me from responding to the much scarier boy.

I relaxed slightly, checking the room. It was empty apart from us.

"Nothing. Not that I didn't already know."

Ikovos turned down.

Jaden shook his head. "I can't believe you were wandering alone after all I said."

"Jaden, that's hardly what matters here," said Ikovos, eyeing him.

The dark boy caught his gaze, it was much more severe than his own anger over my disobedience had been. He leaned up.

"Right. You're going back to bed."

"What?-" I straightened "-No I'm not!"

He stood up. "Yes, you are." Then he walked towards me.

I took a few steps back, thinking he was just bluffing, but he kept coming.

"Ikovos!"

The blond boy eyed him listlessly. "Jaden, just relax."

Jaden ignored him, pinning me against a table. I put a hand up to his chest.

"Why won't you just tell me?"

His eyes hardened. He pushed my hand off, reaching behind me to shove me towards the door. "I already told you, it's none of your business."

I scraped along defiantly, then clenched my teeth. "I think you're just scared." It was just a mumble, but he stopped immediately, spinning me around to face him.

"Scared?"

I nodded.

He scoffed. "Of what?"

My eyes narrowed gravely on him, then to Ikovos, and back. "Trusting someone."

It hung fiercely in the air, the room dead silent.

His jaw clenched.

"Let her go, Jaden," said Ikovos, drawing both our heads over. He was still sitting at the table.

Jaden's grip loosened slightly and Ikovos nodded his head over.

"Come on."

My brows lifted, surprised, uncertain. I checked back at Jaden. He was eyeing Ikovos hard. Then I stepped carefully over to the table, as the thunder echoed once again throughout the room.

I sat down across from him where Jaden had been.

He watched me all the way then looked at me with a blank face. "Do you have a dad, Evelyn?"

The question took me by surprise. My brows knit for a moment, unsure of his meaning.

"You've talked about your mom before. Do you know your dad?" His tone was calm.

I checked over at Jaden, his arms were crossed now. He was standing in the same spot by the door, expression cold.

"Ah, yeah." I shook my head out. "He lives at home. I mean, he works a lot, but . . . he's around I guess."

Ikovos nodded, then one corner of his mouth pinched up slightly, gaze downward. "I was pretty close to my dad . . ." he focused back on me. "He worked a lot too, like yours. But he ran a library so I still got to see him."

The blood started to pulse quicker in my veins. I saw Jaden shift out of the corner of my eye.

Ikovos continued. "It was a big place, a couple stories, the only one in our town. We all ran it together: me, dad, mom, and my two sisters-" he smiled, looking to me again "-Younger. They used to run around making a mess of everything. I'd follow after, putting all the books or whatever they'd trashed back in place. I never really got mad about it though, I guess I liked taking care of them, even when I was just a kid . . ."

My eyes held on him, heart sinking at his falling countenance. Suddenly he shook his head, nodding up and over.

"Ah, one day, when I was about seven I guess, we closed up the library early. It was my sister's birthday, she was turning six and she wanted to go to this fancy restaurant in town." He looked at me again, a sparkle in his eyes. "Her name was Lucy, she was a lot like you actually. Sweet, but independent to a fault. I remember being so anxious that night, we were in a bar after all, and she was running around everywhere. She was so excited because there were traveling musicians performing in town that night. A man and his wife, she sang, he played." He chuckled, looking off again. "Lucy decided that they were there just for her. . . . They had a son, too, a little younger than me." His eyes shifted over to Jaden, smirking. "Disreputable-looking boy in my book, but of course Lucy latched onto him right away."

For the first time since Ikovos had started my eyes moved off of him, over to Jaden. He was backed against the wall now, arms still crossed, jaw clenching as hard as hard as I'd seen it yet.

My skin shivered all over, hardly able to register what I was hearing. I forced my gaze back to Ikovos gravely, afraid of what would come next. He was starring out the window, smirk falling to a cold line.

"We were playing tag when we first heard the screams from outside. They told us to stay in the building. I found my parents. Mom was holding onto the three of us tightly, blocking my sister's eyes. Dad stood above us. Everyone was huddled in the same corner. I remember seeing the musicians' son standing with his parents . . . he didn't look scared at all and I didn't know why."

"When the first Meoden came in, no one knew what it was, we'd never seen or heard of anything like it, so we couldn't have known . . ."

My eyes dropped to the table.

"I watched my dad die first. He was trying to fight them off. The Meoden kept coming until all the men were dead. I stood out in front of my mother and sisters, but the monsters just grabbed me and pulled me away from them. I can still remember Lucy's face. My mom tried to . . . but they held her off. They grabbed the other boys too. When they tried to take the musician's son from his mom, she wouldn't let go, so they killed her while she was still holding him. Then they threw him over with the rest of us."

I looked back up.

"We weren't strong enough, none of us were strong enough. . . . I didn't even get to look back before they took us outside. Then they locked us in a caged wagon."

I could barely breathe.

Ikovos narrowed his eyes. "The boy was next to me screaming, he hadn't stopped since they'd killed his mom. I just kept banging my arms against the bars, trying to break through. I don't know how long it was. My hands were bloody by the time the fires started. I swear I could hear my sisters screaming, but the wagons pulled out before the building had even finished burning. I never saw my family, or my home, again."

Lightning continued to flash from the window, but it barely registered in my consciousness. The boy across from me took a heady breath.

"We were in the wagons for days without food or water. By the time they stopped us, there were only seven of us left alive. The musician's son was one of them. He hadn't said a word since the first night. When the Meoden directed us out of the wagons I forced him along. At the time I told myself that it was because I didn't want him to be left to die with the bodies, but . . . I think I just couldn't bear to let go of the last bit of my old life."

My eyes dropped again.

"We were brought into the Meoden dimension soon after, one of their larger strong-holds. There were other boys there, some older, some younger, most of them were really strange, twisted. The seven of us stayed together at first, but over the next few months . . ." I saw him tilt his head up, maybe to check my face ". . . You can't describe what they do . . . it was torture. . . sometimes. Other times they'd talk to us in human form. This was almost worse. The lies, the confusion. They'd blur the lines between right and wrong, good and evil . . . so many of the boys gave in, even the ones we'd come with. They grew steadily worse until they were as screwed up as the Meoden themselves."

"Somehow me and the musician's son held it together . . . not that we didn't pay for it." His mouth tipped without humor. "It was easier if you gave in to them, you see. In fact after a year the five boys we had come with were actually released. That's how it worked . . . just not for us . . . we got moved to a separate compound for labor, didn't want us leading any new acquisitions astray."

"We escaped soon after that . . . sort of. . . . At the time we pretty much just thought we'd die on the frost planes. There was no way to get to a portal and return to our own world. Still, we decided it was better to die then continue on with the life we were living." He smirked dryly. "We were close to it too . . . too far to go back, and no food or water left in our supply. That's when we came across a burnt-down camp, one of the Meoden's. Master Thoran found us then, he'd been the one to attack it. After we explained our situation, he fed us, cured us . . . then took us back to the lodge."

I let out the smallest breath as his eyes turned up.

"I think you know the rest of the story from there."

The rain seemed almost muted beyond the window, maybe it had stopped. My eyes turned to the table. I was tracing a knot in the wood with my finger.

"So now you know."

I didn't respond. What could I say? There was nothing I could do or recommend to make it better, no consolation that would change anything, change what had happened . . . was it just selfish of me to ask in the first place? . . . Thinking I had a right to know, what about them? . . . What could be done for them?

"Hey." He reached a finger across the table to bring my chin up, eyes quite at ease. "Don't go second guessing yourself now. You're my friend and it was right that you asked. . . . In fact I probably should have told you sooner. I just didn't . . ." His features twisted.

For the first time since he'd started, tears began to fill my eyes.

He lifted his expression immediately, hand pulling back. "Come on, now, don't cry on me."

I sniffled, wiping the tears as he smirked.

"We turned out okay, right?"

I nodded, sniffling again. "Yeah." Then he wiped a stray drop from my cheek and laughed shortly.

"Just gives us more motivation to fight the suckers."

I tried to join in his lightening, but it didn't work well. He turned his head off to the right then Jaden spoke.

"Come on, it's late."