“My brother’s gone,” I grumbled as I sat down next to Jongin in class. “I thought it would be a good thing, but God, it’s actually kind of boring back at home. He didn’t even return my calls.”

Jongin raised an eyebrow at me. “Who was it last week that was looking forward to their brother leaving so they could—and I quote—have more freedom?” He pauses, then imitates, “It’s not like his cooking is edible anyway, so he’s basically useless.”

I scowl at him. “Yeah, well, the apartment’s just super empty without him. And it’s kind of unnerving going to sleep without anyone there.”

It’s not unexpected, but he gives me the classic I told you so look.

I swipe at Jongin with my pencil case. “Shut up, smartass,” I grumble. He just laughs at me.

Chapter 40

When I was fourteen, Jinyoung decided that a road trip to the mountains was necessary. I have yet to figure out what was going on in his head then, but we’d stayed at the hotel for one day before he decided that not only was it unnecessary but it was torturous because the mountains were absolutely plagued with mosquitos and it was so hot that I complained about getting a heat when we attempted to hike, and that was that. It was probably the most uneventful, boring, and short vacation of my life.

Ignis reminded me of that trip. Packing up the little clothing I had (thankfully, what I had worn to Ignis had been washed and surprisingly ironed by someone) and the couple of belongings I’d brought, I stared at my room in the Byun manor.

I’d slept here for a grand total of one night before we had been just… dismissed by Eunhae’s mother. Not that I was particularly against that because it was good that nothing huge happened and I was allowed to go back, but at the same time, it felt strangely anticlimactic. I’d barely gotten comfortable before I was leaving again, and even though it was, technically speaking, a good thing, something seemed to be a bit lacking.

Or maybe I was overthinking, like usual. That wasn’t hard, given everything that was going on with the Athanatoi, but part of me was always so prepared for the worst that the fact that the worst didn’t actually come was a bit hard to comprehend.

Shrugging off the thoughts, I turned back to packing the little belongings I had brought. Going back to Seoul was a good thing, I told myself one more time, though I would be lying to say that I wouldn’t miss Ignis. The city was beautiful, and there was no denying that. It was modern yet held classic, olden elements to it, and I wanted to explore just a bit more before I left.

Then again, I couldn’t have everything. I’d gotten what I wanted.

I was still struggling to sort through my thoughts when someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” I called.

A couple moments later, Kai stuck his head inside. His hair was half wet, some strands of chestnut brown sticking up and others plastered to his forehead. He scanned the room, then gave an approving nod. “It’s still neat,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “I’ve been here for a day.”

“You’re definitely capable of ruining a room in a day.”

“That’s not what a supportive boyfriend should be saying,” I shot back, then, with a bit of mortification, realized what I had said and snapped my mouth shut. Then I figured that it was technically true because we were dating and that had been established days ago and there was no reason for what I had said to be anything out of the ordinary. It didn’t stop the fact that I was pretty sure my face had turned red.

Kai blinked, obviously a bit taken back from the comment, before he shook his head as if to snap himself out of it. “I’m pointing out a fact,” he protested.

“Yeah, right.” I zipped up my bag. “Anyway, are we leaving now?”

He nodded, then took the backpack from me and slung it easily over his bag. “Luhan said that he figured we should probably go back as soon as possible so things… well, get back to normal. Eunhae isn’t coming with us, though. At least not for now.”

Figures, I thought. The last time I had seen Luhan and Eunhae, they’d been arguing. I still had no idea what it had been about, but it definitely hadn’t ended amiably.

“Are we… going to do anything about the Darkling situation?”

He frowned. “What Darkling situation?”

“I don’t know. Do you think Eunhae’s mom would… I don’t know, send more people to Ignis because the Darkling showed up like that? Isn’t that what she did last time?”

Kai gave me a helpless look. “I have no idea,” he said. “I think she might if she thinks the situation is dire enough, but according to Eunhae, she’s trying to keep it from the rest of the Council, which means she can’t really do it without alerting them or making them suspicious. It’s nothing for you to worry about. We’ll just… have to be more careful from now on. I suppose the Darkling would be too.”

I glanced at Kai again. He said the Darkling’s name easily, but I wondered what exactly it was that he felt every time he was mentioned. Kai hid his feelings well enough—always had, really—and it was frustrating because I was already terrible at reading them.

Finally, he gestured at the door. “Let’s get going,” he said. “It’ll barely be midday in Seoul when we get back, so there’s still a bunch of stuff we can do.” He gave me a slight grin. “Including training. Isn’t that lovely?”

Groaning, the Darkling, Ignis, and Eunhae temporarily forgotten, I followed him out of the room.

***

Leaving Ignis felt like a blur. Probably because it was so short.

We went through the same, warded doors that had been in the basement of the safehouse, except it was much bigger and fancier and there were two other spellcasters who opened the portal for us. Luhan was extremely quiet when he followed, and somehow, his mood was enough to influence everyone—even Baekhyun—and no one spoke much as we went through the gates.

And then were were back in the portal room in Seoul, the remnants of the magic from Ignis fading behind us as everyone stepped through.

It was so quick that I could barely wrap my head around it. Just a moment ago we had been somewhere else utterly, and now, technically, back in the real world—it was strange. Even after everything that had happened in the past couple of months, it was still mind blowingly complex, and I wasn’t sure if I could ever wrap my head around it.

Kai nudged me slightly. He was still carrying my backpack, to my surprise, and apparently didn’t have anything of his own that he brought. “Let’s go upstairs,” he offered.

I glanced at Kyungsoo, then at Baekhyun, who didn’t say much, unenthusiastically quiet. Luhan’s mood really had rubbed off on all of us, I realized. He wasn’t not the moodmaker—Baekhyun was, sometimes Chanyeol—but for some reason, it was like everyone could sense that he wasn’t not in the best of moods and chose not to say much because of that.

We were in the Ignis safehouse, anyway. Luhan went first, pushing open the door from the portal room, and disappeared down the hallway just like that, leaving Baekhyun, Kai, Kyungsoo, Sehun and I standing in awkward silence once more.

“Alright,” Baekhyun said. “Well, that’s that.”

That felt like the most accurate conclusion of the whole time at Ignis. That’s that. Pointless, confusingly anticlimactic, and what I felt like utterly useless.

Kai touched my shoulder again. “Hey,” he said. “Mira. Snap out of it. Are you even paying attention?”

I blinked at him. “No.”

He rolled his eyes. “At least you’re honest. Let’s go. Baekhyun has the keys and he needs to lock the room up, and then we can go to training for a while. I don’t think Luhan’s going to be there, but I want to see if we can try your power on something.”

Frowning at Kai, I followed him out of the room. Baekhyun muttered something that sounded like finally when we stepped out of the door. “What do you mean?”

“Your power,” Kai repeated. “Life. You probably nearly wore yourself out completely when you brought me back, but we can also start small.”

The first thing I could think of was squishing a bug and then attempting to bring it back to life, though I wasn’t sure why anyone would want to bring a bug back to life. I repeated that thought to Kai, who only snorted.

“No bugs,” he said. “Honestly, I don’t know if there are any at this time. But one of our house plants died the other day. It’s not very big, so if you manage to revive it, you probably won’t pass out for a day.”

“Challenge accepted.”

He rolled his eyes at me, then turned a hall to head up the stairs to the main floor. “Go change into something you can train in. I’ll meet you in the training room.”

***

There was still a fair bit of clothing in the closet of my room in the safehouse, but most of it consisted of shirts and pants, one nightgown that I had never touched, then shorts. It was a more practical closet, most definitely