My heart was pounding in my chest as I rushed down the hallway, the floor seeming to spin under my feet. Thoughts, ideas, and arguments were swirling inside my head as I walked, venom  appearing to rise on my tongue. I was going to confront Secta, and I had a hell of a lot of things to talk to him about.

The matter of him getting ready to die was one of the key topics, and I was ready to commit true suicide by bringing up his lovely wife, Cybele and Nocen, and then there was the biggest bomb that had just dropped today.

A letter had been slipped under my door, and I couldn't figure out who had given it to me. It was a handwritten note, sloppy as though urgency pushed their hand past its limit. I'd nearly passed out when I read it, but now my vengeance was more ferocious than my fear.

The note had said simply this:

Kate,

Karmen called. Demon and pixie forces swelling, not good. Target is looking to be Ultrona.

Ultrona had been underlined twice, and I about spilled my lunch. The demons were going to invade my city, and that meant they could hurt my family, Matilda and the Bentons.

They were doing this to hurt me, and that was the only reason that made sense. Nothing in Ultrona could benefit them: barely any decent land and no money. We weren't known for anything besides having a shitty ruler who had been replaced quickly. They wanted Matilda; Noxia wanted to make me squirm.

I'll kill her. I'll make my fucking meraki power up, and I'll blow that bitch into the sky.

I came around the corner to Secta's door, pounding my fist against it with passion. Not even bothering to hear his response, I walked inside like the room was mine. He was hunched over some papers across his desk, holding up his chin with one hand. His powerful eyes met mine, and the adrenaline rush I was spinning in kept me from believing fear wasn't anything but an illusion.

"We need to talk now." I laughed, sauntering up to his desk. Plopping down on of his chairs, I rested both hands on the wood, drumming my fingers. "We have a lot to talk about actually."

"Do we?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. He shifted his paperwork into a file before I could read any of it. "About your meraki development? You're improving rapidly."

"Blah, blah, blah." I retorted, setting my elbows on his desk now. Resting my chin in my hands, I leaned across his desk. "Where do you want me to start? With the hard facts or the easy ones."

"Always start with the bad."

"It's all bad."

"Then begin with the worst of bad please."

I decided that the worst of the bad, being his wife, might not be the best way to start. "I know about the potential attack on Ultrona."

He didn't even looked surprised. Secta only leaned back further into his hair, resting his fingers in between his eyes with a deep sigh. "Of course you do. Who told you?"

"I don't know, and that isn't even a lie. Anonymous note." I said, meeting his golden eyes. "Listen, you are sending me there. I'm not sitting this one out and you can't make me. That's my city and my family is there, so I have to be there to protect them. Nonnegotiable."

"You aren't going because to begin with you aren't fully trained in any area of battle, secondly your meraki though growing stronger isn't ready for combat, and lastly that is precisely what Noxia wants: to get you out in the open so that she can take you herself or through one of her demons. I'd be a fool to let you go, Kate. We can't risk it."

"Oh, but we can." I smiled, "Karmen said I'd be alright in the end, and you and I aren't really buddies so I doubt you'd care if they smacked me around a little. It would save you the effort of doing it yourself, that and killing me remember?"

His face hardened, "this isn't a discussion we'll be having, Kate."

"It is, Secta. You'll let me go and make sure my friends are safe."

"I will not." He responded, leaning forward now with a look of full of stubbornness. "You can't just decide these things for yourself. That is my choice because I am the keeper of Gabrian. You fall under my command."

"That is until you're dead." I said slowly. He froze and in his hesitation, I wondered how well the argument I'd just started would play out for me. Had I really played my cards right? Regardless of my uncertainty, I kept my face as cold as stone.

"You want to try and get rid of me?" He snarled.

"No. I'm not a fool either, Secta. You don't want to be in control any longer; you feel like you've been around long enough and you're ready to give in. That's the only way this makes sense."

"How what makes sense?"

"Your behavior. You keep yourself up here in this house alone and withdrawn from the others. You let your senior guardians make all the hard choices while you sit up here and organize your stationary. You're training me because you want a successor, someone to keep your people safe when you die even if you can't trust me enough to fully tell me how to get the job done." I said, taking in a breath. "You're putting distance between the people you care about to try to make their pain more bearable when you're dead; you're slowly rationing off your responsibilities to others so that way they'll be used to them when you're gone."

Secta crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back once again into his chair. He didn't say a thing as he looked at me, and that only made me realize how very right I was.

I blinked, "I'm right?"

"It's nearly time for me to go, Kate. I feel it coming." He said softly. "My life is coming to an end, and I won't ignore it or try to change the course of time."

"But..." my mind went blank. "You're Secta, the God of Light and the hero of the people. They've written legends about you, ones I heard as bedtimes stories. You're the face of Fate's army. You can't just... die like this."

"Someone else will take my place." He said, looking at me. "Though I doubt you, Karmen doesn't. I trust her judgment more than my own now; I'm an old man."

I swallowed, "I can't ever take your place, and you damn shouldn't expect me to take your title with grace after what I've been through. You have criticized and fought me the entire way while hanging my death warrant over my head, and now that you're ready to tap out, you want to dump your war on me to fix for you. How the hell is that fair?"

"It isn't fair, but I never wanted you to feel that way either. I've been hard on you because of my inability to trust your potential, but I can't change the fact that I'm ready to die and that you're the only one in this universe who stands a chance at filling my shoes."

"You're ready to die?" I said, eyes widening. "Wait, no. You don't know that your death's coming. You want to end it, don't you? You're ready to actually..."

His sad eyes met mine, and I could truly see the age in them. "I've lived a long time, a painful eternity that is never-ending. Finding you has been the only thing that makes me think my people will be safe because you'd never let a thing harm them. I'm growing weaker, and they can't put their faith in me anymore. I'll only disappoint them, and I hardly have the motivation to breath any longer."

"What about Cybele?" I asked him. "She isn't enough?"

He grimaced, "I love my daughter, but I've wronged her as much as I've cared for her. She needs you more than she needs me."

"You're her father." I replied, meeting his eyes. "Every girl in this universe needs their damn father and I know what it's like to live without one. She's lost you once, and she shouldn't have to go through losing you again. No one can replace you, definitely not me. She'll never find anyone to take your place because only one man fits the job description, and that's you."

Secta closed his eyes, taking in a shaky breath.

I reached out, touching the back of his hand. "I know about Noxia too, and I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I can't imagine what it would be like to live through seeing her this way without having the power to change anything, and I know it was really damn hard for you to get this far. Listen, you have your baby now so don't let anything hurt Cybele again. Don't let history repeat itself; if anyone can stop Noxia, it's you."

"I'm exhausted, Kate. I'm tired of constantly fighting the woman I love who remembers our life before the curse and doesn't care. I want my Noxia back, and sometimes I think that if I die, she might just come with me. I feel this sense that the only way to end her is through my demise, the two of us gone together." He said, and somehow I could feel his pain in my chest as well. It was crippling, nearly making me cry out as the waves of his emotion tried to break me. He was more than ready to drown.

I laced my fingers in his, squeezing his hand. "That isn't something to experiment with, Secta. Please don't give in just yet because I need you too. Your guardians need you for as long as Fate allows you here, and I need you the most. If you plan on handing Gabrian over to me, then teach me what the hell I have to do because I'm clueless. I don't want to walk into war without you because when I imagine that day, I envision you right beside me telling me how we're going to win the battle."

This only made him chuckle. "You don't need me. You're a better, stronger version of me, Prodigy."

"A prodigy needs a teacher, and you're mine, the only one I've got. I don't care what you say, because I need you to guide me. You can't kick the bucket until you've shown me the way, and even then I'll be powerful enough to make sure you don't have to die at all."

"Cybele could teach you; she knows enough."

"She won't be teaching me anything when the both of us are crying over you." I said, his eyes opening to meet mine. "Look at that, I even said I'd miss you and that I'd cry over you; you should be happy about that. Secta, I need you or else Fate wouldn't have put us together. You've lived a long life, and only you can tell me what I need to know because you've lived the life I'm about to step into. You know the war, all the players, how meraki operates, and the goddess Fate in a way no one else does. Not a soul in this world walks with her the way you do. If I'm the Prodigy, you need to give me all the help I can get so I avoid making bad decisions. I can't afford to make the wrong choices, and neither can you."

He tapped his fingers against his desk. "Don't tell my daughter a word of our conversation, and I'll let you go to Ultrona. Don't make me regret it."

"My lips are sealed." I said.

"I still don't want you around Finnigan until I've finished training you." He replied, meeting my eyes. "Is that understood?"

"Is there a chance for us?" I asked him. "Secta, you don't know how much I love him."

"I'd have more peace about it if I taught you to avoid making these 'horrific decisions' you're talking about." He said. "It isn't impossible, but I'll be very slow to allow it when I recover from this conversation."

"Is Finn going to fight in Ultrona?"

"He is now." Secta replied, "he'll only be better knowing that you're out there somewhere. I'll send you both on different doves."

I swallowed, taking in a breath. "I'll be back soon, and we can make it through this, I promise."

Secta only waved his hand at me, and I knew that I was dismissed.