This is one of the most idiotic things I've ever done, but luckily I'm the only one who can tell. My hands tremble as I clutch the handle of my crossbow, slick with sweat, pain lacing up my hip as I precariously balance on my one good leg.

Herne is lying on the ground, an arrow sticking out the bullseye of his skull.

"Mess with someone else's idiot next time," I breathe, and catch Gus's impressed look out of the corner of my eye.

It fills my chest with warmth.

"Okay, someone help me," I beckon, sliding back against the wall of the cave and letting some of the weight off my hip.

"Whoa there," Gus scrambled to his feet and caught me just before I hit the ground.

For a moment it was just us in the darkness, our heavy breathing, the sound of the thunderstorm outside and my arm around his shoulder as he pulled me up. For just a moment. I spot my leg brace a few feet away, thank God, and made quick work of limping over there and strapping it on.

"Are you okay?" I ask, as he pulls me back up to my feet.

"M-me? I'm fine. What about you?" He seems surprised that I asked.

"I'm in my perpetual state of hanging in there." I remember vaguely that I'm mad at him. "This is kind of all your fault, buddy."

I can see the faint outline of his stupid grin. "Aw, we're buddies again."

"Oh shut up," I frown. "Speaking of, where's Conway?"

The cave is absent of the significantly more leafy Northcott, and it only takes a few seconds for me to realize it's also absent of light. Gus meets my eyes, we figure it out at the same time; Greta.

The air outside is thick with smoke. Half of the trees are burning pathetically before immediately being doused by the force of the storm, which has both of us soaked within minutes. Greta is standing half within the shelter of the trees, fire dripping and bubbling off of her like lava. She screams with anguish and rage, and I can feel the heat from it. She's a terrifying catalyst of rage and heat; she's the sun.

Conway is positioned just before the lip of the cave, burns lacing down his wooden limbs. He's shaking violently, whether from the cold or the fear, it doesn't seem to matter at this point. He's in the middle talking to her.

"I'm sorry... I didn't want to hurt you!" It comes off as begging. "I just... I got so overwhelmed. You were going to kill me."

"You were going to kill me." She lets out a hiss. "Hackfresse."

"Conway!" I call out to him, letting go of Gus and taking steps in his direction.

He turns on his heels to find the source of the noise. I limp towards him with one hand out and he shrinks away from me. His ears flick back and the roots on the ends of his appendages curl into themselves, resembling a fist. I realize the last thing he wants me to do right now is touch him.

"I was just..." He presses his fists against the sides of his head. "Nobody could find out, I had to keep the family safe... from me."

"What do you know about family!" Greta cries, more lava pouring out of her eyes, like she's crying. "Look what you did to your own brother."

"He's... he's not..." Conway glances over at me, eyes flicking down to my bad leg. "Did I... did I do that?"

I wince. "Don't listen to her, Con."

"You did." Greta's voice is dripping ice. "It's your fault. You're a monster. You're a pathetic loveless faerie. Your parents favor your crippled brother over you."

"Shut up!" I seethe, my crossbow formed in my hand. "You can't talk to him like that."

"I'm dead, Asher," she snaps. "The faerie bastard murdered me. Do you know how much pain and suffering he caused me? My family? Everything I've worked for. All my sacrifices. All of your sacrifices. It's his fault. Remember what you told me?" Her eyes glisten with an inhuman sheen. "You wouldn't have had to marry me if Conway was human."

I pull the trigger and an arrow flies across the field and embeds itself in her shoulder. Greta screams, the arrow is alight and gone within seconds but she slaps her flaming hand across the blaze where it pierced flaming flesh and squeezes it tightly. Gus, taking my lead, drops into an offensive stace from his spot of hanging back awkwardly from our family drama.

"Asher, Gus, stand down." Conway croaks out.

"I will not!" I gape at him.

"If Asher is attacked, I'm legally allowed to throw down," Gus adds.

"Stand. Down." he says through gritted teeth. His eyes glisten with hurt. "She's right."

I meet his gaze, which is as filled with exhaustion as the Atlantic ocean is filled with water. I try to take another step towards him and find I can't move my feet. There's roots scattered across the ground, presumedly emanating from Conway himself. I look up at his face again, disbelief in my eyes, as he tethers me down and takes a step towards the flaming menace.

"A trade, Greta," he says. "Parallel in your agreement with Herne the Hunter, only this time, with my conditions."

Greta floats towards him slowly, her head tilted ever so slightly. She looks like every infamous horrific specter crudely mashed together then set aflame. Her eyes are wide and you can only see the blue colour where the lava has hardened and crusted in tear-streaks down her face. She doesn't say a word. I'm half convinced she can't form human speech anymore, even as the seconds tick by I feel like I can watch her humanity being slowly sucked out of her.

"Kill me, if that's how you want your revenge," Conway's voice shakes. "Rip out my 'faerie heart' and bring it along to your afterlife."

Greta's eyes flicker dangerously, she reached out her flaming tendrils and presses them against Conway's shoulders. He winces, and I want to yell and shout so badly but I can't move.

"You can do whatever you want to me, finish whatever pact you made with Herne," he promises, glancing away from her eyes. "But you can't harm my brother."

My heart stops. Did he just... "Conway no--"

"Please," he begs me. " This was always going to happen. You were always going to find out that I was never part of your family. She's right. You would have been better off with your real brother."

"N--no." I can feel the tears form in the corner of my eyes and my body starts to shake. "Conway, you can't leave me."

"I... I'm sorry," he says. "I'm glad I got to pretend to be your brother, even if it was only for a while. Thank you."

Greta twitches, and something in her immediately changes. She seems to shrink and compact in on herself, little bits of fire and heat peeling off of her like potato skins. I realize with a start that she's... being extinguished. Her skin is ashy and dripping with water and rain but it's... human skin. Her bright orange hair is slicked against her face and it looks like she's crying but between my own tears and the rain I can't tell. She stares at Conway with her big, wide blue eyes.

"You would put yourself in his place?" I can barely make out her words through the hissing and crackling that overlays her voice. "You would sacrifice yourself for your brother?"

Conway looks scared, less human now than ever, with his thin ears flat against his neck and his pupils dilated to cat sirs. Still, it's with a steady voice that he responds, "Always."

Greta blinks, then takes his wooden hand in her own. "Ah, had you been a human, you would have been an excellent suitor." Her voice trails off as her jaw collapses on one side. I can see her body continue to crumple, and it's an ugly sight. Conway tenses up, uncomfortable, then looks to where she is pointing, to the intricate gold-colored ring on her finger, her integral. In her touch, Conway's hands begin to shift until the bark peels off of his skin and she's holding his dark, human hand. She stares at him, and they meet each other's gaze for an uncomfortable amount of time, exchanging words in a language no one could hope to understand. Then Greta melts away into the wind, disappearing into a thin translucent mist and fading into the wind like a ghost. Conway's ghost.

Conway lets out a shaky exhale and his fingers twitch, turning over something in his palm. "Ersteche."

The roots around my feet relax, and I nearly fall over (Gus tries and fails to grab me) in attempt to scramble over to him. He looks up at me, shocked, like he's zoning out again, and shows me what's in his hand. It's Greta's ring.

"Can I... hug you?" I ask, I always ask.

He bites his lip but extends two mismatched hands, one fae and one human. I throw my arms around him immediately and squeeze as hard as I can. I miss this. I miss him so much. I miss his dumb little ideas and I miss him talking to me about plants for three hours straight. I miss going with him to get books because he doesn't want to talk to the librarian. I'm so ashamed I didn't realize how much I like having him around until he was gone.

"Time's up," he says, and squirms out of my grasp, then turns to Gus, who's standing there awkwardly in the rain, as Gus is apt to do. "You're absolutely not permitted to touch me."

Gus shrugs. "Fine with me, Groot. Sure we can't get an up top?" He raises his hand over his head.

"No," Conway frowns at him, then holds up the ring in his hand to look at it, then instead only becomes more transfixed on his hand. It shifts slightly, slowly changing back to normal, bark gracing his skin like freckles and rapidly multiplying. "Blast it. Asher, take the ring. In a second it's going to burn my hands," he explains, handing me the ring. "I'd hate to have to deal with three blisteringly painful metal rings stuck in my body."

I squint at it in the rain and Gus leans over my shoulder. It's got engraving on the insides, ornate stuff, too, but I can't make it out in this lighting. "Did you say three rings?"

"Had my... integrals in when I transformed," Conway laughs nervously. Of course. He'd never been able to turn the earrings into anything, andhe loathed them for it. I can still see the little glint of them in the moonlight, half-covered by inflamed looking bark. "Don't worry about it. Wait, do you hear that?"

At that moment I spot a figure in the entrance to the cave. A deer skull steps into the moonlight and the rain pattering down on it makes a hollow ring where a body might be, invisible in the dark night air.

"We've got company." Gus says, readying his integrals. "Round two, fellas?"

"We can't fight him again, he'll kill us," Conway insists.

"We have to try," I counter.

Conway flashes me an annoyed look, like he doesn't appreciate me throwing around my mortality like that, then grabs my arm and yanks me off into the bushes. Gus let out an indignant noise, and runs to catch up with us.

"What are you doing?" he yells. "Herne will just follow us."

"He will if you keep screaming like that." Conway shoots back.

"He can't track us forever, or into the mortal world, and I know a shortcut."

"Of course he does," Gus mutters, rushing to keep up with Conway. "We're going back for him later. I mean, you are. I mean, we could? Ah dangit I'll deal with this later."

"Con, your hand," I point out, wheezing as I struggling to keep up.

It's slowly turning back into a tree and roots are curling around my arm. Conway glances at it, then grits his teeth and pushes forward a little faster. He seems to know where the gates are, like he has their positions memorized (which I wouldn't be surprised if he did) and within minutes we're three gates closer to home.

"Just one more," he promises, as we slide under a bridge through gate two.

Herne steps out from behind the cobblestone, his skin glowing, eyes dark. The three of us halt in our tracks, knee deep in the summer creek. Conway slowly puts his hands out in front of the two of us but I push him aside and bring out my integral instead. I waste no time and load and fire three shots, each one hitting Herne's skull and sticking there. This time, he braces himself, and all three go up in ghastly purple fire. Gus launches himself forward with the agility of a cheetah, nunchucks spinning wildly, and Herne throws him to the ground, where he springs to his feet in the creek water. Conway's eyes narrow and a tree erupts from the ground, grabbing Herne by one leg. It's all the time we need to slip past him, but I can't help but feel it's a lucky escape.

We can still hear his frustrated cries when we barrel through the last gate.

Our integrals shrink, and we stop to catch our breath, the town is laid out in front of us, cast a soft purple light, the sun is rising. It's officially been a long night.

"You're sure he can't come into the human realm?" Gus asks, glancing around and surveying the area.

"Positive." Conway confirms. "He's on Gate seven, at least, and I'm guessing four was the lowest he could even appear. Did you notice he could barely even touch us?"

"I would not describe that as 'barely even touching'," Gus says, rubbing his back.

"That's okay," I say, standing up straight again and taking a deep breath. "We'll stay out of the higher gates for a few months, and keep watch. It'll be fun having you around the house again, everything's a huge mess so you can go mad cleaning stuff up like you usually do. Wait till you see what Gus has done to our room."

Gus snorts. "It's an improvement."

Conway shifts on his feet uncomfortably. "I'm...I'm not coming back."

My excitement stops dead in its tracks. "Wh-what?"

"I can't... not like this." He gestures to his body. "Besides, your parents don't want to see me."

"Our parents." My chest tightens. "They're our parents."

Conway stares at the ground, and shakes his head slowly.

I watch Gus awkwardly rub the back of his neck. "Right. Little Man, Groot, you work stuff out. I'm going to go... uh... breathe deeply in a corner. Call me if anyone else wants to murder us."

I appreciate it, momentarily before confusion and distress overwhelms me. My hands clench into fists and my thumb runs over my knuckles. It's something Conway taught me, to calm me down.

"Where will you go?" I ask.

He shrugs. "The woods, the fae. I have a few... Friends I guess. Acquaintances. I'll be okay."

"B-but... what about me?" I wipe my face. "I... I still want you in my life. I don't want you to go."

Conway rubs his arm with his half-transformed hand. The only sickening feeling I was going to experience now when I thought of his trees was how much I was going to miss him.

"I know." He glances up with a wry smile on his lips. "That's just you being clingy again. Not that I mind. Something tells me you're in good hands."

His head tilts ever so slightly in Gus's direction, where the crummy American indeed is breathing like he wants to imbibe the entire sky. I can feel the blood rush to my face and let myself scowl at him. None of my angsty front is genuine and Conway knows that.

"He said he was leaving as soon as we get back." I say. "'Good hands' my arse."

Conway frowns. "Well... in that case I'll visit. Or you can visit me. We'll... we'll see each other. I think I probably want to see you again too, as friends... I guess." He's messing with his hands, which frantically change form as roots and small branches rearrange themselves on their surface. I can hear his voice crack, like a tree falling in the forest.

"Brothers." I insist.

Conway makes no answer, instead he simply picks at the bark on his arms and rocks back and forth on his heels. I pull his gnarly root-fingers away from his skin and patted them gently. He pulled his hands out of mine and held them at his side.

"Can I hug you one more time, at least?" I ask.

Conway looks up me, then sighs. "Fine. Only because it's you."

I reach forward and squeeze him, gentler this time. Conway pats my back this time, tensing up under my touch, standing up straight like the world's lankiest penguin.

I notice I'm crying when I let go.
He backs away, then waves at me awkwardly before slipping into the darkness of the forest. He's gone within seconds. My face is red and hot with embarrassment as I turn towards Gus, who is half blue from hyperventilating, the twat. He's quite possibly even more awkward than Conway is, only without the prickles. I suck in a deep breath.

"He's not coming back?" Gus raises an eyebrow at me.

I shake my head. "No... he's not ready yet. I guess."

I can't stop myself from breaking down. The tears just keep coming and it's not even that long before I'm stammering out apologies through half-breaths and choking on sobs. This is embarrassing, I'm an embarrassment. Gus doesn't deserve this. Nobody does. Gus stands there for a bit, he looks like he's trying to figure out what to do. Then to my amazement, reaches out slowly, and hugs me. I can barely begin to even process what's happening, but it shocks me out of my melt down.

"I'm s-sorry." I force out. "I just d-don't want to be...alone...again."

He's silent for a moment. "Neither do I."

"What?" His body is cold and wet, but then again so is mine I guess.

"I said neither do I." He pats my back gently, then lets me go. "Thanks, Asher."

I blink through the tears, my mind racing with whatever that might mean. "F-for what?" I'm too scared to ask. I stare up at him and he looks tired. I'm sure we both do.

He also looks... happy... and relieved. He smiles at me and I feel a little better.

"Don't worry about it. You ready to go home, bud?"

I nod, and follow him through the mud and the rain that's finally letting up as the sun rises, leaving Conway and his ghosts behind us.