A/n: Someone asked if I have an updating schedule? Nope. Just the more people vote and comment the faster I update. I know waiting for updates suck, so if people are commenting and voting, I tend to be quicker about it.

Chapter 40 – Inside (Danny Conrad POV)

With a fairly enhanced memory, there were moments I could remember easily. Sometimes, I only recalled them, when I was having an almost déjà vu experience.

When I met my first wife, before she was my wife, that very first time – I held my breath. Not the dramatic way children often do it. Cheeks all puffed out, panting and making a show. It was as though she literally took my breath away and I had forgotten how to breathe.

I've had many of those instances in my life, different feelings accompanying them as well, euphoric glee, overwhelming fear or sadness and stunned silent.

A bucket of cold water is thrown on me, except I do not react. I remain utterly still looking at Cynthia, my blue eyes showing nothing. I swallow thickly though. I cannot help that little reaction.

"You want to call the Elders?" I ask cocking my head to the side, gazing at Cynthia. She's doing some searching of her own I can tell.

"We don't have to call them specifically. We can do it all anonymously Danny. She's worth something to them, the Elders won't even hurt anyone, they won't risk her that way I'm sure. We just need to be far away before they show up."

"If your own brother cannot treat you better than this Danny," she takes a step towards me and this time I stand still. The woman I know gazes back at me, her hand coming up to caress my check. "They don't – she does this Danny. She only brings destruction and if your family won't help us because of her, then we need to think of our children. Of Lydia, Lia, Leslie, our kids Danny, Stella, Danny Junior and Genesis. If your family can turn not just us but them away, we have to think of ourselves," she pleads with me, grabbing hold of my shirt. Squeezing it in her hand desperately, I feel the cotton fabric stretch over my skin.

"Maybe..." I swallow before licking my dry lips, "my parents didn't turn me down, and it was just Ansel-"

Cynthia shakes her head from side to side, "Danny," she smirks, "Asking your parents for money, they'll give us pennies. Turning that girl in however, and we cannot only set us up but the children as well. We won't have to keep going to your brother for money. He won't ever look down on you again," she says fluidly.

"Let's leave Danny, let's take the kids and leave, we'll send the Elders for her?" I blink confused for just a moment before running through all options in my mind, coming up with an exit plan. Glancing away, for the briefest moments, in my minds eyes the pieces fall together. Turning back to Cynthia, I swallow, "If-if that is what you want to do, Cynthia," I exhale, listening to everything as though each sound in this moment needed to be remembered. "If you're willing to do this, then I am too," I whisper watching her pupils dilate as she exhales loudly. Her entire frame, shoulders all lower as she nods back at me.

The grip she has on my shirt tightens and as though I've given her the best present, Cynthia pulls me in, curling one hand at my neck, lips on mine, eagerly showing me everything I need to know, feel and think in that moment with her.

When she pulls away gasping, Cynthia nods, her blonde hair shaking around her face, "Okay we need to check out and – and go get the kids from your family-" nodding, take a step back checking for my car keys, "We'll talk more about her once where safe – I'll tell you everything Danny, but we just need to think of our family first," Cynthia says as I gather my things on autopilot.

"Our family first," I parrot back.

"Andy won't come with us willingly..." Cynthia murmurs. Her eyes darting around, "I have my sleeping pills, maybe – maybe we – we uhm," she runs a hand through her hair, pulling at it on the second pass.

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Ansel Conrad POV

Kalenah and I drive home in utter silence, and when we've turned right up to the house, I gaze at our home and easily note that we were walking into a full wide-awake home despite being past ten.

My fathers' car pulls in behind me, and he makes a move to get out while Kalenah and I sit immobile, each lost in our own thoughts. Danny wasn't all together wrong when he said I chose sides. I had picked Faith the instant Kalenah told me what she had suffered before even arriving in Bend.

The girl had no one. Sure we ran into that a time of two being who we were but Faith was something special.

"She's special," I say slowly, focusing now more on what Cynthia said while she seemed to be purging the truth for once. "I know," Kalenah whispers back.

I shake my head. "No, love, Cynthia said they think she's special," but it's my wife that turns to me, grabbing hold of my hand. "I know Ansel, I heard her." She tells me with wide eyes.

"Andy remembers so much more than I think he's ever shared with us though!" she says the worry written all over her face and coating each word. I frown, "What do you mean?"

"Ansel, he said that they told him to watch out for her... if Faith is – not if... it's safe to say that Faith is from Zedwood-"

Dad taps my window stopping Kalenah. Instead of getting out though, I just flick the switch, unlocking the back door and nodding to the backseat. My father old, but with the times, steps back and opens the door, slipping inside.

"What's going on?" he asks looking between Kalenah and I. "We've been trying to figure out what Faith is, but tonight while I still have questions, I think it's given Kalenah and I some ideas."

He nods thoughtfully, "Your mother and I too... especially after that woman said she's special-"

Kalenah nods, and in the low light, she glances at me almost checking that we were on the same page in revealing information to my father. "Not just from Cynthia, Jonah. When I was in the washroom with Andy, he told me that they said to take care of Faith."

I frown, and from the corner of my eyes, I see dad lean forward with an identical expression to mine I gather. "And I'm not saying that he was not told to look after Faith, but Ansel and I we were just saying that Faith was in Zedwood-" Dad instantaneously begins shaking his head.

"She is not fully Fae-"

Kalenah nods, but she grabs my fathers' outstretched hand, still holding mine. "No, she is not but who says that? How do we know for sure what is truth and what is just circulated myth to prevent entrance in that realm?"

I gaze at Kalenah; she was going up against everything we knew when it came to the Fae culture.

"Those on the other side want to remain pure, so they refuse entrance... but from what Cynthia said she was banished with Faith. And they didn't just send her here, they banished her here. If she is special as Cynthia says, why would they not keep her in Zedwood?"

"And Andy said that he was told to look after Faith... Andy is only fifteen and Faith is seventeen. She was clearly older. As a mother I want to say that maybe it's his guilt talking," Kalenah pauses looking at me then my father. "However as a psychologist," she slowly tilts her head to the right, squinting as though she's searching for the truth.

And maybe she was.

"He couldn't properly say 'Faith' or 'Fatima' for that matter, but he did say 'Fay.' Dad and I both nod.

"Okay but what if it's magic? A spell? Telling a child something like keep her safe or protected, or anything," I find myself nodding, following Kalenah's train of thought. "How could he remember that? And its as though their bond is the strongest metal or rock. You cannot fake the reaction he just had," she shakes her head, eyes glazed over.

Again my wife is right. Finding out the truth made that poor boy sick, but it was the rage that baffled me.

"If anything you'd assume that Andy would approach this as Leslie and Lydia had, that somehow it's all a misunderstanding-"

My father exhales, sighing loudly. "He is like Samson in his loyalty to the girl." I flick my gaze over to Kalenah, her eyes saying what I'm thinking.

If Cynthia stays and makes trouble, Faith will run. She has the means and the perfect place to hide out. Walsh told us that Dmitri left Faith with endless properties over the world.

If Faith decides to run, Samson and surely - now - Andy will follow her, I think. I grimace when I realize that this was the most likely scenario. In the tension that builds after my father speaks, the silence grows as well, until my fathers phone and mine ring and buzz respectively.

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