A few days later, almost all of my runes had come in and been healed by Louis, making me a full fledged protector.

Well...almost a full fledged protector. I still needed some training.

Training to strengthen my protector talent was quite nerve-racking for me, since it mostly consisted of Louis and Dad throwing things at me to force me to block them. Dad explained that now that my runes were almost complete, whenever I was in danger they would immediately create a sort of safe haven bubble to protect me. Needless to say, it was quite funny watching as the two goofballs in my life threw pillows at me only to have the golden shield deflect them.

Things got a bit scary when Dad suggested Louis use his talents against me, but I had nothing to worry about. Louis had promised to start easy with water first, my eyes widening as the golden bubble shield had kept me perfectly dry. The same happened with Louis' fire, the flames hitting the shield and extinguishing immediately, my body unharmed. The rocks Louis threw broke apart into tiny pebbles, and the winds he diverted never knocked me down.

"Try electricity." Dad had confidently ordered Louis, both of our eyes becoming wide.

"Y-you sure?" Louis asked, my memory keeper talent remembering when he had almost hurt me in the hospital long ago with electricity.

"Positive. She won't get hurt." Dad said, folding his arms over his chest and leaning against one of the pillars on the back porch of the cabin.

Louis was hesitant, hands starting to shake as he mentally debated what to do. His lip was bitten as he struggled to believe I would be fine.

"It's okay." I called out to him, trying to relieve his stress. "I trust you."

Louis seemed surprised, eyes a bit wide before he settled himself. He took a shaky breath before I watched him do something I had never seen before.

He held his palms out in front of him before moving in a circle around each other. My own eyes became wide with amazement as I watched electric blue sparks begin to form and crackle between his hands. The sparks grew stronger and stronger, soon extending from his hands to dance along his skin in bright branches of electricity. His hair began to stick up on end, and his usually bright eyes turned almost a neon color as immense amps of electric current ran through his body. I was almost dazed as I watched my timid boyfriend turn into a human circuit.

The electricity was beautiful, the various shades of blue seeming like an art form similar to his tattoos. However, it was when Louis launched a spark towards me that I remembered how dangerous it was.

My eyes stayed open only from the sudden fear that arouse within me as the electricity came closer, my voice unable to help the small shriek that sounded as the sparks hit my shield.

They spread and crackled around my golden bubble before they suddenly broke into two: half reaching upwards to escape into the clouds and half jolting downwards into the earth. I heard a rumbling in the puffy clouds in the sky right after, my shield disappearing once the danger was gone.

Louis' face expressed extreme relief as he shot the rest of his electric charges into the sky in a flash of lightning, the thunder being heard again a few moments later. His hair was a bit messier and his eyes had returned to their normal color, and he was smiling softly at me.

"Told you she would be fine." Dad snickered as I practically skipped over to them, not one hair on my body harmed at all. "Protectors never get hurt unless they purposefully lower their shields."

I took Louis by surprise, hugging him from behind with a silly smile on my face. His head turned to look at me, his hands covering mine that had wrapped around his waist. I felt sparks dance inside my chest as our skin touched, the kind that people dreamed of having when they were with someone they cared about. I buried my face into Louis' back, pressing a kiss between his shoulder blades and feeling his tense muscles relax.

"Wanna go into town? We could go to the ice cream place." I asked Louis, who pulled me around to face him, making me giggle as he playfully spun me around.

"You might have to wear a hoodie." Louis chuckled as he took my hands and held my arms out from my body, his eyes looking over the bright runes on my skin. "Don't want to scare any Terrans."

"Maybe I could say they're metallic tattoos. I could start a fashion trend." I smiled goofily at Louis, who only rolled his eyes before following my father into the cabin, tugging me by his side by our intertwined hands. Dad had offered to drop us off at the ice cream parlor since he had work to do, and after grabbing one of Louis' hoodies he had let me keep, we piled into the truck and set off for Briarwood.

Louis and I had been dropped off in front of the retro ice cream parlor, Dad promising to be back in about an hour to pick us up. Louis tugged the zipper of his hoodie up to my chest, smiling at how the sleeves fell past my hands. We had entered the ice cream shop, my memory keeper flashing me a vision of me collapsing from the last time I had been in here. I shook the memory off, and almost dragged Louis to the counter filled with flavors of every ice cream imaginable.

We had decided to share a banana split, just like when I had brought Louis here for the first time. We even sat at the same table, Louis laughing as I started devouring the sweet treat.

"You're awfully energetic today." He observed before eating his side of the ice cream.

It was true. In the days following the moment when my curse had broken, I felt like I was only getting stronger. I had never thought of myself as very athletic before, but I surprised myself when Louis and I had gone hiking in the forest the day after the first runes had showed up and he couldn't seem to keep up with my fast pace. It was strange to witness him getting tired and breathless while I felt perfectly fine, a phenomenon Dad had told me later that day when we had returned. Apparently that was how I was always meant to be, athletic and strong and fast.

I relished in my newfound agility once I had discovered it in the forest, begging for Louis to get his friends together so we could play football again. This time though, I had a feeling I would be one of the aggressive offensive scorers, not the sickly girl stuck in the goal.

I was finally the Mira Lane I was always supposed to be: strong, confident, and ready to take on the world for once.

"Mira?" Louis repeated, tapping the end of my nose with his finger and surprising me out of my thoughts. My eyes refocused and blinked rapidly as I giggled at Louis, who seemed to catch my infectious laughter.

"You zoned out for a bit." He chuckled, taking a scoop of chocolate ice cream past his lips. "What were you thinking about, Butterfly?"

"How great things are." I simply replied before reaching my hand to take the cherry off of the whipped cream on top of the banana split, quickly eating it and setting the stem to the side. My hand was grasped by Louis', my breath catching in my throat as his fingers carefully pushed the sleeve of his hoodie up. My runes were traced over with his warm fingertips, a small smile on his face as his eyes stared at the glittering marks.

"I couldn't agree more."

We had left the ice cream shop a little while later, deciding to just walk back to the cabin instead of bothering Dad when he had to work. I couldn't help the butterflies in my stomach as we just walked hand in hand down the street, my heart racing from just being by Louis' side.

My life was like a fairytale now. I had magical talents, a magical boyfriend by my side, and I had nothing to worry about anymore.

As we walked down the street, I caught sight of an elderly woman struggling to carry a box filled with books into Mr. Winchester's book store. I let go of Louis' hand to hurry over and help her, taking the box from her hands to ease her strain.

"I'll help you with that." I said, offering the old woman a smile. She returned it, her shaky hands releasing it and clutching her small purse. She was an adorable elderly woman, dressed in a purple dress and matching shoes. Her white hair was curled and despite her age, her blue eyes still sparkled.

"Thank you darling, I just wanted to see if Mr. Winchester would care to take these old books from me. I have no use for them anymore."

Louis had hurried over and held the door open for both the elderly woman and me, my arm slightly brushing the woman's as she passed me and entered the book shop.

I hadn't been expecting it, but my vision changed.

"What do we know?" A male voice asked out of the limited light in the room. I could hardly see anything besides the figure of a middle-aged woman, and someone sitting in an armchair, a man by the looks of it. The woman was standing by the man, her fingers combing through his hair as she hummed softly. Her dark eyes glittered in the dim light, her long hair curled and flowing past her shoulders. She wore a black fitted dress, one the man admired as his fingertips brushed down the shape of her hips. He seemed enraptured by her, his attention all encompassed in her.

"They're in Washington. A prisoner confirmed the Rift is somewhere near a small town called Briarwood." The woman said, the man only nodding slightly as he continued his adoration, pinching the fabric of her dress. I had seen him before, and my eyes grew wide when I realized who he was.

"Briarwood?" Allister mumbled, his pale skin seeming paler in the dim light.

"That's where he is. You could finally get him." The woman whispered, my uncle nodding. His hand reached to grip her shoulder, pulling her down to kiss her lips.

"Go find him, Marissa. Bring him to me alive." Allister whispered, dismissing the woman. She smiled wickedly at him before her figure suddenly warped and changed into none other than the old woman I had helped.

"Of course, my love." She said as she walked out of the room, leaving my uncle brooding over his thoughts alone.

I was pulled back roughly into reality, the old woman who I now knew was my evil shape shifting aunt staring at me questionably.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" She asked in fake worry, my eyes wide as I froze. My heart was thumping wildly in my chest, Louis mirroring Marissa's worry. His fingers made contact with my arm, and I used my talent to send the memory to him. His eyes became glassy as the quick memory flashed before him, soon blinking to clear his vision. He understood my distress immediately, taking the box from my hands and quickly setting it on the ground inside the book store.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, just zoned out a bit." I rushed out before tightly grasping Louis' outstretched hand. "Have a good day!" I called out as we began to walk away, Marissa seeming to have other plans.

"Excuse me, darling, but do you know where the local medical center is? I came here to visit a family member who works there but I seem to have gotten lost." She said in the perfect sweet old lady voice, but to me that phrase made my blood run cold.

'Bring him to me alive'...were they going for Dad?

"No, sorry, we don't know." Louis answered for me before rushing to get out of the situation, leaving the disguised Marissa at the bookstore and hurrying to get back to the cabin. This was bad, Nox was here.

We made sure to take a long route back to the cabin in case Marissa ended up following us, my increasing levels of stress exploding as we stepped inside. My breathing became labored, and I felt hot tears overflowing on my cheeks as Louis quickly shut the door and locked it.

"This is bad, this is really really bad." I mumbled, my hands on my cheeks as I paced around in circles. "Oh my God, Nox knows we're here, they know the Rift is here, this is really really real-"

"Mira!" Louis interrupted, taking my hands from my cheeks and replacing them with his. My mumbling was stopped, my breath catching as our faces were separated by only a few inches.

"Breathe." He ordered, staring me right in the eyes and trying to get me to calm down. "Just breathe."

I nodded before starting to take deep breaths, Louis' thumb brushing over my cheek. My eyes closed as he kissed my forehead, my hand reaching to cover his on my face.

"Just relax. We can fix this." He assured me before kissing my closed eyes. They fluttered open as he pulled away, dark blue looking into a lighter shade.

"How?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper, as if Nox could hear me if I spoke too loudly.

"The Rift. We can go. We'll pack your things and your dad's and we can all escape there and come up with a plan, you, me, and your father. Don't worry." Louis said, making me nod in understanding.

If this was how I was going to react when I saw a member of Nox, how was I supposed to fight them? I needed to build upon my strengths.

"Everything will be fine, Butterfly." Louis mumbled as I hugged him tight, my eyes scrunching closed as I savored in his warmth, his comfort, his everything. He was my rock, the one I could always count on to help me. It was like some powerful being had intertwined the threads of our destinies into knots, combined our hearts into one, and made us the perfect couple.

I had never really been exposed to Luxien culture in my life, but I knew there was one person I had to say something to for all of this.

Thank you, Fate.

A/N: Dedication goes to @HazzyStyles for marrying this fanfic in the last chapter's comments. May you have a long and loving relationship as fan and fanfic.

As always, vote and comment! -Maddie