Seolhyun wasn’t sure what woke her. The howling wind from the first hardcore blizzard of the year had calmed last night and her room was quiet. Peaceful. She rolled onto her side and blinked.

Eyes the color of charcoals stared into hers. Eyes eerily familiar but lackluster compared to the ones she loved.

Youkyung.

Clenching the blanket to her chest, Seolhyun sat up slowly and pushed the tangled hair out of her face. Maybe she was still asleep, because she really had no idea why Youkyung, the twin sister of the girl she was madly, deeply, and quite possibly insanely in love with was perched on the edge of her bed.

“Um, is... is everything okay?” Seolhyun cleared , but the words came out raspy, like she was trying to sound y and, in her opinion, failing miserably. All the screaming she’d done while Dr. Park, her mom’s psycho boyfriend, had her locked in the cage in the warehouse was still reflected in her voice a week later.

Youkyung lowered her gaze. Thick, sooty lashes fanned the tips of high, angular cheeks that were paler than they should be.

Seolhyun glanced at the clock. It was close to six in the morning. “How did you get in here?”

“I let myself in. Your mom’s not home.”

With anyone else, that would’ve creeped the hell out of her, but she wasn’t afraid of Youkyung. “She’s snowed in at hospital.”

Youkyung nodded. “I couldn’t sleep. I haven’t slept.”

“At all?”

“No. And Mina and Hyejeong are affected by it.” She just stared at Seolhyun, as if willing her to understand what she couldn’t put into words.

Everyone was coiled tight, waiting for the AOE to show up as the days ticked by since Youkyung escaped their Felix prison. Mina was still trying to process her boyfriend’s death and her beloved sister’s reappearance. And though storm troopers hadn’t busted up in their houses yet, none of them were relaxed.

Everything was too easy, which usually didn’t bode well.

Sometimes... sometimes Seolhyun felt like a trap had been set, and they’d galloped right into it.

“What have you been doing?” Seolhyun asked.

“Walking,” she said, glancing out the window. “I never thought I’d be back here.”

Seolhyun reached up, wrapping her fingers around the familiar weight of the Culpa necklace. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head again, shaggy wisps of hair partially obscuring her eyes. It was longer than Hyejeong’s, curlier, and probably needed a trim. The same section of hair that always fell on Hyejeong’s forehead toppled onto hers. “You... love my sister?”

Seolhyun’s chest hurt at the desolation in her voice, as if she never expected to love again, couldn’t really even believe in it anymore. “Yes.”

“I’m sorry.”

Seolhyun jerked back, losing her grip on the blanket as it fell lower. “Why would you apologize?”

Youkyung lifted her head, letting out a weary sigh. Then, moving faster than Seolhyun thought she was capable of, her fingers brushed over Seolhyun’s skin, over the faint pink marks that circled both wrists from fighting against the manacles.

“Yuna had those kinds of marks when I saw her,” Youkyung said quietly, pulling her hand back. “She got really good at escaping, but they always caught her, and she always had these marks.”

“Did... did you get to see Yuna often?” Seolhyun knew they’d allowed at least one visit between them while imprisoned in the AOE facility.

“I don’t know. Time was messed up for me. I kept track in the beginning, using the humans they brought to me. I’d heal them and usually if they... lived, I could count the days until everything fell apart. Four days.” She went back to staring out the window. “They hated when everything fell apart.”

Seolhyun could imagine. The AOE, or Icarus, a group supposedly within the AOE, had made it their mission to use Felixes to successfully mutate humans. Sometimes it worked.

Sometimes it didn’t.

She watched Youkyung, trying to remember what Hyejeong and Mina had said about her. Youkyung was the nice one, funny and charming, the equivalent of Mina and nothing like Hyejeong.

She glanced down at her hands. “Hyejeong... She loves you, too?”

Seolhyun blinked, brought back to the present. “Yes. I think so.”

“She told you?”

Not in so many words. “She hasn’t said it. But I think she does.”

“She should tell you. Every day.” Youkyung tipped back her head and closed her eyes. She jumped up and suddenly appeared on the other side of the room. A second later Seolhyun felt warmth tingle along her neck and her heart rate pick up. “My sister is coming.”

No more than ten seconds later, Hyejeong was standing in the doorway of Seolhyun’s bedroom. Hair messy from sleep, flannel pajama bottoms rumpled. Hyejeong’s gaze slipped from her sister to Seolhyun and then back to her sister. “Are we having a slumber party? And I’m not invited?”

Youkyung drifted past her silently and disappeared into the hallway. A few seconds later, Seolhyun heard the front door close.

“Okay.” Hyejeong sighed. “That’s been my life for the last couple of days.”

“I’m sorry.”

Hyejeong sauntered over to the bed, her head tilted to the side. “Do I even want to know why my sister was in your bedroom?”

“She couldn’t sleep.” Seolhyun watched Hyejeong bend down and tug the covers. Without realizing it, she’d grabbed them again. Hyejeong pulled once more, and Seolhyun easily let them go. “She said it was bothering you guys.”

Hyejeong slipped under the covers, easing onto her side and facing Seolhyun. “She’s not bothering us.”

The bed was way too small with Hyejeong in it. Seven months ago– hell, four months ago, Seolhyun would’ve run laughing into the hills if someone said the hottest, moodiest girl in school would be in her bed. But a lot had changed. And seven months ago, she didn’t believe in aliens.

More shifting and their bodies were separated by a hairbreadth. The heat that always rolled off Hyejeong’s body swamped hers. “Has your mom said anything about Dr. Park?”

“Just what she said last week, that he was going out of town on some kind of conference and visiting family, which we both know is a lie.”

“He obviously planned ahead so no one would question his absence.”

To disappear was what he needed, because if the forced mutation worked on any level, he’d need some time off. “Do you think he’ll come back?”

Running the back of her knuckles down Seolhyun’s cheek, Hyejeong said, “He’d be crazy.”

“About Youkyung...”

“I don’t know what to do,” Hyejeong admitted, trailing the back of her knuckles down Seolhyun’s throat, over the swell of her chest. Seolhyun’s breath caught. “She won’t talk to me, and she barely talks to Mina. Most of the time, she’s locked up in her bedroom or out wandering in the woods. I follow her, and she knows.” Hyejeong’s hand found its way to Seolhyun’s hip and stayed. “But she–”

“She needs time, right?” Seolhyun kissed the tip of Hyejeong’s nose and pulled back. “She’s been through a lot, Hyejeong.”

“I know. Anyway...” She caught Seolhyun’s chin with her free hand, tipping her head back. Her eyes searched hers. “Your voice...”

Seolhyun winced and uselessly cleared again. “It’s getting much better.”

Hyejeong’s eyes darkened as she ran her thumb along Seolhyun’s jaw. “Not enough, but it’s growing on me.”

Seolhyun smiled. “It is?”

“It’s kind of y. The whole raspy thing, but I wish–”

Suddenly, the window overlooking the front yard blew apart as something large and white crashed through it, sending chunks of glass and snow shooting onto the floor.

Seolhyun’s startled scream was cut off as Hyejeong rolled, springing to her feet as she slipped into her true Felix form, becoming a human shape of light that shone so brightly.

“Holy crap,” Hyejeong’s voice said, filtering through Seolhyun’s own thoughts.

Seolhyun scrambled to her knees and peered over the edge of the bed. “Holy crap,” she said out loud.

Their precious moment of being normal ended with a body lying on Seolhyun’s bedroom floor.

Seolhyun stared down at the dead man. Her thoughts were a little hazy at first, which was why it took her a few seconds to realize, dressed like this... and all the red streaming from his head... “Hyejeong...?”

She pivoted, slipping back into her human form as she wrapped an arm around Seolhyun’s waist, pulling her back from the carnage.

“He’s a-an Officer,” Seolhyun stuttered, smacking at Hyejeong’s arms to get free. “He’s with the–”

Youkyung suddenly stood in the doorway, her eyes glowing much like Hyejeong’s were. “He was sneaking around outside by the tree line.”

Hyejeong’s arm loosened. “You... you did this?”

Her sister’s gaze flickered to the body. It lay in a twisted, unnatural heap. “He was watching the house, taking pictures.” Youkyung held up what looked like a melted camera. “I stopped him.”

Yeah, Youkyung had stopped him right through Seolhyun’s bedroom window.

Letting go of Seolhyun, Hyejeong made her way over to it. She knelt and pulled back the insulated white down jacket. There was a charred spot on the chest that smoked. The smell of burned flesh wafted into the air.

Seolhyun climbed off the bed, pressing her hand to just in case she started to hurl. She’d seen Hyejeong hit a human with the Source before. Nothing but ashes had remained, but it had a hole burned through its chest.

“Your aim is off, sis.” Hyejeong let go of the jacket. “The window?”

Youkyung’s eyes drifted to the window. “I’ve been out of practice.”

Seolhyun’s mouth dropped open. Out of practice? Instead of incinerating it, she’d knocked it into the air and through her window. Not to mention she’d killed it.

“My mom’s gonna kill me,” Seolhyun said, feeling numb.

After a quick change and bathroom visit, Seolhyun stood in the living room, surrounded by aliens for the first time in days. A perk of being made of light, she guessed, the ability to go just about anywhere in a blink of an eye.

Since Minhyuk’s death, everyone had pretty much given her a wide space, so Seolhyun was unsure what was about to go down. Hands shoved into her pockets, Youkyung pressed her forehead against the window, her back to the room. Mina sat perched on the couch, her eyes fixed on her sister’s back. She looked wired, her cheeks flushed with anger.

Seolhyun thought it bothered Mina being in this house. Or just being near Seolhyun. They hadn’t had a chance to really talk after... everything.

Seolhyun’s gaze slid to the other occupants. The evil wonder twins, Chaeyeon and Yonghwa, were seated beside Mina, their gazes locked onto the spot where their brother had last stood and died. Seolhyun wrapped her arms around her waist to try to suppress the shudder. Two sets of footfalls came down the steps, and Seolhyun turned, finding Hyejeong and Jonghyun.

Walking to her side, Hyejeong tugged on the edge of Seolhyun’s hoodie. “It’s been taken care of.” Jonghyun and her had gone upstairs no more than ten minutes ago with a tarp, a hammer, and a bunch of nails.

“Thank you.”

She nodded as her gaze slid to Youkyung. “Did anyone find a vehicle?”

“There was an SUV near the access road,” Yonghwa said, blinking. “I torched it.”

Jonghyun sat on the edge of the recliner, looking like he needed some liquor. “That’s good, but it’s not good.”

“No ,” Chaeyeong snapped. Upon a closer look, she wasn’t the picture perfect ice princess today. Her hair hung limply around her face, and she wore sweats. Seolhyun didn’t think she’d ever seen Chaeyeon in sweats. “That’s another dead AOE Officer. How many does that make it? Two?”

Well, actually, that made it number four, but they didn’t need to know that.

Chaeyeon tucked her hair back, her chipped fingernails pressing into her cheeks. “They’re going to wonder where they are, you know? People don’t disappear.”

“People disappear all the time,” Youkyung said quietly without turning around, her words the oxygen from the air.

Chaeyeon’s bright sapphire eyes slid to her. Well, everyone pretty much looked at Youkyung, since that was the first time she’d spoken since they all gathered.

“What about the camera?” Jonghyun asked.

Seolhyun picked up the melted thing, turning it over. Warmth still radiated from it. “If there were pictures, they’re gone now.”

Youkyung turned around. “He was watching this house.”

“We know,” Hyejeong said, moving closer to Seolhyun.

Youkyung tilted her head to the side and when she spoke, her voice was empty. “Does it matter what was on the camera? They were watching you, her. All of us.”

“But next time, we need to kind of... oh, I don’t know, talk first and then throw people through windows later.” Hyejeong crossed her arms. “Can we try that?”

“And we can just let killers go?” Mina said, voice shaking as her eyes darkened, flashing with fury. “Because that’s apparently what should happen. I mean, that Officer could’ve killed one of us, and you would have just let him go.”

“Mina,” Hyejeong said, stepping forward. “I know–”

“Don’t ‘I know, Mina’ me.” Her lower lip trembled. “You let Jimin go.” Her gaze moved to Seolhyun, and it felt like a kick in the stomach. “Both of you let Jimin go.”

Hyejeong shook her head as she unfolded her arms. “There was enough killing that night. Enough death.”

“Minhyuk wouldn’t have wanted that,” Chaeyeon said quietly, sitting back against the couch. “More deaths. He was such a pacifist.”

“Too bad we can’t ask him how he really feels about it, isn’t it?” Mina’s spine stiffened, as though she was forcing herself to bite out her next words. “He’s dead.”

Apologies bubbled up in Seolhyun’s throat, but before they could break free, Yonghwa spoke. “Not only did you guys let Jimin go, you lied to us. From her?” He gestured at Seolhyun. “I don’t expect loyalty. But you? Hyejeong, you kept everything from us. And Minhyuk died.”

Seolhyun whipped around. “Minhyuk’s death isn’t Hyejeong’s fault. Don’t put that on her.”

“Seol–”

“Then whose is it?” Mina’s gaze met hers. “Yours?”

Seolhyun in a sharp breath. “Yeah, it is.”

Hyejeong’s body went rigid beside her, and then, always the referee, Jonghyun jumped in. “All right, guys, that’s enough. Fighting and casting blame isn’t helping anyone.”

“It makes us feel better,” Chaeyeon muttered, closing her eyes.

Seolhyun blinked back tears and sat on the edge of the table, frustrated that she was even close to crying because she didn’t own the right to those tears. Not like they did. Squeezing her knees until her fingers dug in through the soft material, she let out a breath.

“Right now, we need to get along,” Jonghyun went on. “All of us, because we have lost too much already.”

There was a pause and then, “I’m going after Yuna.”

Everyone in the room turned to Youkyung again. Not a single thing had changed in her expression. No emotion. Nothing. And then everyone started talking at once.

Hyejeong’s voice boomed over the chaos. “Absolutely not, Youkyung– no way.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Mina stood, clasping her hands together. “You’ll get captured, and I won’t survive that. Not again.”

Youkyung’s expression remained blank, like nothing her friends or family had said made any difference to her. “I have to get her back. Sorry.”

It looked like a dumbfounded stick had smacked Chaeyeon in the face. Seolhyun probably looked the same. “She’s insane,” she whispered. “Freaking insane.”

Youkyung shrugged.

Jonghyun leaned forward. “Youkyung, I know, we all know, Yuna means a lot to you, but there’s no way you can get her. Not until we know what we’re dealing with.”

Emotion flashed in Youkyung’s eyes, turning them deepest black. Anger, Seolhyun realized. The first emotion she’d seen from Youkyung was anger. “I know what I’m dealing with. And I know what they are doing to her. I lost Juho. I don’t want to lose Yuna too.”

“Wow. You fell in love with another freaking human?” Chaeyeon shook her head in disbelief.

Prowling forward, Hyejeong stopped in front of her sister, legs spread wide, arms crossed again, ready for battle. Standing together like that, it was surreal seeing them. They were identical, with the exception of Youkyung’s thinner frame and shaggier hair.

“I cannot allow you to do that,” Hyejeong said, voice so low Seolhyun barely heard her.

Youkyung didn’t budge. “You don’t have a say over it.” She glanced at Seolhyun.

Out of the corner of her eye, Seolhyun saw Mina moving toward them, but Yonghwa reached out, catching her hand and stopping her.

“I’m not trying to control you, Youkyung. It’s never been about that, but you just got back from hell. We just got you back.”

“I’m still in hell,” Youkyung replied. “And if you get in my way, I will drag you down with me.”

A wind blew through the living room, stirring the curtains and flipping the pages of Mrs. Kim’s magazines.

“All right, the alien thing right now is a little too much, and I really don’t want to have an alien brawl in my house on top of the broken window and the dead body that came through it.” Seolhyun took a breath. “But if you two don’t knock it off, I’ll kick both of your asses.”

Now everyone was staring at her.

Seolhyun looked Hyejeong right in the eye. “I know you’re upset because you worry about me, but I’m not going to be the girl who sits at home and waits for the hero to wipe out the villains.”

“This isn’t a book,” Hyejeong murmured.

“Well, duh–”

“No. You don’t get it.” She turned to Seolhyun. “This isn’t a paranormal fantasy or whatever the hell it is you read. There is no set plot or clear idea of where any of this is going. The enemies aren’t obvious. There are no guaranteed happy endings and you–”

“I know this isn’t a book, Hyejeong. I’m not stupid.”

Beside her, Youkyung looked sort of amused. Or in pain, one of the two, because she really wasn’t smiling or frowning. But then, without saying a word, she stalked out of the living room, the front door slamming shut behind her.

Hyejeong glanced at Seolhyun, and she nodded. Sighing deeply, she followed her sister, because there really was no telling what Youkyung would do or where she would go.

The alien Kumbaya fell apart after that. Seolhyun followed them to the door, her attention fixed on Mina. They so needed to talk. First off, she had to apologize for a lot of things, and then she had to try to explain herself. Forgiveness wasn’t expected, but she needed to try to talk.

Seolhyun clenched the door knob. “Mina...?”

She stopped on the porch, back straight. She didn’t face her. “I’m not ready.”

And with that, the front door tore free from Seolhyun’s hand and swung shut.

***

As expected, school resumed on Monday, and there was nothing worse than returning after an unexpected break and having all the teachers buzzing to make up for lost time.

Seolhyun dropped into her seat, pulling out her notebook.

Jieqiong eyed her over the rim of her red glasses. New ones. Again. “You look absolutely thrilled to be back.”

“Whee,” Seolhyun said unenthusiastically.

Sympathy marked her expression. “How... how is Mina? I’ve tried calling her a couple of times, but she hasn’t returned any of my calls.”

“Or mine,” Doyeon added, sitting down in front of Jieqiong.

Doyeon and Jieqiong had no idea that Minhyuk hadn’t really died in a car accident, and they had to keep them in the dark. “She’s really not talking to anyone right now.”

Jieqiong sighed. “I wish they had the funeral for him here. I would’ve loved to pay my respects, you know?”

Apparently Felix didn’t do funerals. So they’d made up some excuse about the funeral being out of town and only family could visit.

“It just ,” she said, glancing at Doyeon. “I thought maybe we could go to the movies after class. Take her mind off it.”

Seolhyun nodded. She liked the sound of that but doubted they’d get very far with her. “She may not be able to do anything this week, though,” she said.

“Why?” Curiosity sparkled in Doyeon’s dark eyes. Loved the girl, but she was such a gossip . Which was exactly what Seolhyun needed.

If people expected Youkyung’s return, it wouldn’t be such a surprise when it did happen. Doyeon would make sure word got out.

“Anyway... I saw her this morning,” Doyeon said in trig, her body practically humming like a tuning fork with excitement. “Or at least I think I did. It really could’ve been Hyejeong, but this girl was thinner.”

To Seolhyun, it was easy to tell the two sisters apart. “It was Youkyung.”

“That’s the strange thing.” Some of the enthusiasm faded. “Youkyung and I were never best buds, but she was always friendly. I went up to her, but she kept on walking like she hadn’t even seen me. And hey, I’m hard to miss. My bubbly personality is like its own screaming person.”

Seolhyun laughed. “So true.”

Doyeon grinned. “But serio