"I don't understand why you can't leave me with Sage. He's just a pup,

" she protested, still stumbling along beside him when they entered a dense mass of trees.

"He's not the only pup,

" Zagan hissed, growing increasingly impatient with these emotions.

"Let me go,

" she tried again, only to have him ignore her.

"Zagan!

"

He whirled around on her, the light gone in his eyes. She had said the forbidden name.

"Why do you hate that name so much?

" she asked in a tremulous voice. Maybe he needed a new name, too.

Having him glare at her like that was like staring directly into the eyes of every spine-chilling nightmare. He became them all.

"Should I call you Fred?

" she tried, attempting to remain cool while the tremors in her body gave her away.

Suddenly the air around them relaxed, the shadows eased into a gentler darkness, and the vampire's eyes softened. Nothing had changed. He hadn't moved, hadn't made a sound, hadn't even breathed since he had no need for it, but the terrifying aura he had been cloaked in dissipated. And then he smiled.

He let go of her arm, and she reached up to rub it. She had lost feeling in that hand from how tightly he had held her.

"Yes, call me Fred,

" he chuckled.

"But then what will I call you?

"

Her eyebrows pinched together. Okay, so she was seriously supposed to call him Fred?

"I'll think about it,

" she mumbled, watching him cautiously. The visceral terror of him was gone, but this… his drastic change in demeanor and mood? That was scary in a different way.

"Well we can't both be Fred,

" he said, amused.

They walked a dark path with trees curving up to form the walls and ceiling over them. It looked like they had entered an architecture of nature.

Zagan was no longer dragging her, and she was no longer resisting following him. She didn't want to risk setting him off again. Maybe it would be better to go along with him for awhile and learn more about this place. Sage didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, but she was going to make sure she found a way to get back to him. She owed it to him and Selah—she owed it to everyone who was captured here. All she had done for the last several years was make it easier to track and capture the alyko.

"I have a question for you,

" the vampire finally said as they walked.

"Under normal circumstances, I would not have even been at this most recent harvest to get the Luna. I do not attend those anymore. My team does well without me. But there have been strange phenomena on the map in that area. Do you know what I am talking about?

"

Zoe pretended to think about it, scrunching her face in concentration.

"Describe the phenomena.

"

"Rather than one light that we would see indicating the alyko use of abilities, this was a smattering of lights,

" he said.

Of course. Zagan had witnessed those anomalies and become curious. It made sense. Without the strange activity on the map, he wouldn't have even been there. Zoe sighed. Sage would have escaped this fate and she likely would have also. If Zagan had not gone, it was also likely that August would have gotten away. As a pregnant Luna, she had no scent.

Zoe's eyes went wide when she suddenly remembered August's pregnancy. She glanced up at the vampire who was still walking a little ways in front of her. Hopefully he didn't know. What kind of experiments would he want to perform if he discovered it? She had no idea what that knowledge would mean for August and her unborn child.

"What did you just realize?

" she heard him ask without looking at her.

"What?

" she asked, panicking internally at the question.

"Your heart jumped and sped up,

" he explained.

"It did?

" she replied, stalling in her answer to think of a reason.

"I was remembering the nightmare of being your possession.

"

"Was it better being Andreas'?

" he asked, stopping to look at her stitched face.

"I never did this to you.

"

"No, it was not better,

" she grumbled, raising a hand to her face.

"Must I be someone's possession? I want to be my own. Although he did let me see the sunlight,

" she remarked, looking up at the canopy of trees that were threaded together so tightly as to keep any light from breaking through.

"I should have given you that,

" he replied, beginning to walk again.

"I did not know better at the time.

"

"So the alyko here have freedoms now?

" she asked, genuinely curious about it.

"Some of them do. It depends on the level of containment. But they all have access to sunlight. I want my little plants to grow,

" he told her.

"Why is this part so dark? Where are we going?

"

They finally came upon an area that opened up before them. There was a crumbling arched stone entryway that they walked under, and then she saw it. A castle fit for a vampire.

The canopy of tightly woven trees rose higher, covering the castle from above.

"Was this always here? Are we in the same place you had me before?

"

"So many questions and yet you have yet to answer mine,

" he said simply.

"The map,

" she nodded.

"It behaved strangely when August demonstrated.

"

"So many lights went on at once. It looked like a constellation all concentrated within Hallowell borders. That was when the Luna used her abilities?

" he verified what he had now come to suspect.

"Yes,

" she confirmed.

"I thought it was a glitch.

"

"Oh come now, don't lie Zosime,

" he chuckled and, hearing her growl at the name corrected himself.

"Don't lie, Fred. You knew it was not a glitch. I made you smarter than that.

"

"But the map has never lit up like that. It had to be a glitch,

" she argued.

"No. It was that something entirely new has been created—something closer to fae than the typical alyko. Penelope Winter is here. She was on the Hallowell land that night. She told me about the pandemic and the Luna's origin.. It seems she has helped me,

" he grinned.