Iris walked beside Wallace as they made their way back toward her house, but the closer they got, the more uneasy she became.
She remembered exactly what had happened the last time she’d returned home on this day.
Her mother had already received a call from the school about the fight, and the two of them had gotten into a massive argument.
Iris had stormed out of the house furious, refusing to come back until after the Blood Moon had already begun.
By then, it had been too late.
When Iris finally returned home, all she’d found was her mother’s mangled corpse.
Pieces of flesh had been torn from her body, and thick black water covered what remained, the same water Iris assumed she had drowned in before the monsters found her.
Twenty years had passed, yet that image had never faded.
Even now, walking toward that same house, Iris could still see it every time she blinked.
They eventually reached the small home, and Wallace stepped forward to knock.
A few moments later, the door opened.
Iris stopped breathing.
Her mother stood there.
Sarah Blackwell looked almost exactly like Iris, only taller, with blue eyes instead of gold.
Her long pink hair fell loosely over her shoulders, and aside from the obvious exhaustion that came with working two jobs, she looked healthy.
Alive.
Completely unaware that, in another three days, she was supposed to die.
“Wallace?” Sarah’s eyes widened before a smile appeared across her face.
“Is that really you? Is your brother here too? It’s been… what, nine years since you two last visited?”
Iris stared at her.
‘She really does know them.’
Apparently Markus hadn’t been lying.
Before Iris could begin processing what that meant, Sarah finally noticed her standing beside Wallace.
Her smile immediately changed.
“Iris.”
There it was.
That tone.
Iris knew that tone very well.
Sarah looked back toward Wallace.
“Could you give us a minute? Actually, you’re not my first visitor today, so you can wait in the living room with him. I need to have a conversation with my daughter.”
Wallace looked confused but nodded anyway.
“Sure.”
Before Sarah could say another word, Iris lowered her head.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I should’ve controlled my temper.”
Sarah froze.
Iris looked back up, forcing herself to continue before her mother could recover from the shock.
‘I still didn’t do anything wrong.
That prick absolutely deserved it.’
But she wasn’t going to let things play out the same way again.
“Is everything okay, honey?” Sarah asked slowly.
“Normally this is where you’d say something like, ‘That prick deserved it.'”
Iris’s eye twitched.
‘Why was that so accurate?’
“I just wanted to apologize,” Iris said.
“I know I can be really impulsive sometimes, and I know I make things harder for you. So… I’m sorry. For everything.”
Then Iris stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her mother.
Sarah stiffened in surprise.
Iris held her tighter.
She was warm.
That alone nearly broke her.
The image of Sarah’s corpse flashed through Iris’s mind again—the missing flesh, the black water covering her body, the cold expression on a face that would never smile at her again.
Iris buried her face against her mother’s shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut.
She refused to let that happen again.
Sarah slowly wrapped both arms around her and began gently stroking the back of her head.
“Hey… it’s okay.” Her voice softened. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“Whatever’s going on, you know you can tell me anything, right, honey?”
Iris tightened her grip.
A few tears escaped anyway.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
For the first time in twenty years, Iris was being held by her mother again.
She didn’t want to let go.
But eventually she forced herself to pull away.
“I’m fine. Really, I’m fine,” Iris insisted.
It was probably the least convincing lie she’d told since returning to the past.
Her eyes were red and puffy, tear stains still covered her cheeks, and even Sarah looked like she was debating whether to believe a single word.
Iris took a deep breath and followed her further into the house, trying to regain control of herself.
Then she reached the living room.
Wallace stood beside the couch completely still, his fingers twitching slightly at his side.
Sitting across from him was a man Iris recognized immediately.
The man wore a black suit with matching gloves, sitting comfortably with a calm smile on his face.
His hair was split almost perfectly between black and white, while a long scar with an almost metallic appearance ran down the right side of his face.
His right eye was gray and dull, completely different from the vibrant green of his left.
Iris’s eye twitched.
If Michello was ranked first on A.E.G.I.S.’s priority kill list, then the man sitting casually in her mother’s living room was ranked second.
Nikolai Dostoevsky.
The Dove.
One of the few people who had survived almost until the very end alongside Iris.
And one of her greatest enemies.
“This really is a lovely home you have, Sarah,” Nikolai said in his distinct Russian accent.
His gaze shifted toward Wallace.
“Oh, Wallace. You’re here as well. Is Markus in town? It must have been… three years since I last saw him.”
Nikolai casually brushed some hair away from his forehead, revealing an X-shaped scar beneath it.
A scar Markus had given him.
“Yes, it has been quite some time.” Nikolai stood and extended his hand toward Wallace with an easy smile.
“What brings you here, old friend?”
Wallace hesitated for only a moment before accepting the handshake.
Iris stared at their joined hands.
‘How funny.’
Wallace was calmly shaking hands with the man who, in less than a month, would order both his death and Iris’s.
‘Can’t say Nikolai doesn’t have a sense of humor.
The bastard tried to kill me on my birthday.’
Whatever sadness Iris had felt moments ago disappeared almost instantly.
“This is a funny coincidence,” Sarah said, seemingly oblivious to the tension filling the room.
“Did you two really not know the other would be in town?”
“No, ma’am. This is genuinely quite the surprise,” Nikolai replied pleasantly.
“I had heard one of my former coworkers might be visiting Applecrest, but certainly not the Valentine brothers. I assumed they’d be occupied with something far more important.” His green eye settled on Wallace.
“Why are you here, anyway?”
“Vacation,” Wallace answered without missing a beat.
“Applecrest is a lovely town, don’t you think? If you’re planning to stay for a while, I’d recommend the local bakery first.”
Nikolai smiled.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Iris looked between the two men.
Wallace was smiling.
Nikolai was smiling.
Neither smile reached their eyes.
The tension in the room could be cut with a chainsaw.
Iris sighed quietly before deciding to lean into the blunt personality everyone already expected from her.
She pointed toward Nikolai.
“This guy’s even creepier than Michello.”
“You always did hate the Reverend. Remember when you threw a beehive into his house?”
Iris blinked.
The memory came rushing back.
Despite everything happening around her, she couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
“Okay, that one was deserved.”
“I actually just came from Reverend Michello’s,” Nikolai said calmly, still wearing that pleasant smile.
“He recommended that I stop by. He thought it might be nice for me to catch up with an old friend.”
Iris’s amusement disappeared immediately.
‘I had a feeling.’
‘So Michello and Nikolai really had been working together, even this far back.’
Iris still didn’t know why.
That was beginning to irritate her more than anything else.
Every answer she uncovered seemed to reveal another part of the past she had somehow completely missed the first time around.
“How is Maria?” Sarah asked casually.
“It’s a shame you didn’t bring her along.”
The room went quiet.
Wallace’s expression changed almost immediately.
Nikolai’s smile weakened for the first time since Iris had entered the room.
Neither man seemed eager to answer.
Iris noticed.
‘That’s definitely something.’
“Hey, Mom,” Iris interrupted before the silence could stretch any further.
“When’s dinner? I can help you cook if you want.”
Sarah looked toward her in surprise.
“You want to help?”
“Don’t sound so shocked.”
Sarah smiled.
“Alright, I’d appreciate it. We have guests now, after all.” She turned toward Wallace.
“Will Markus be joining us too?”
“Yeah, he should be here soon,” Wallace replied before glancing toward Nikolai.
“I imagine he’ll be pretty surprised to see you. Right, Nikolai?”
Nikolai’s smile returned.
“I’m sure he will be.”
Iris bit down on her nail as the pieces began moving around in her head.
‘Hey, imaginary friend.
Good news: I’m probably not getting murdered until Mom goes to sleep.’
Nikolai valued keeping the supernatural hidden almost as much as A.E.G.I.S.
did, which made sense considering he was a former agent himself.
He wasn’t going to start a serious fight in the middle of Sarah’s living room unless someone forced him to.
‘Bad news: if Markus doesn’t get here before tonight, I might actually be screwed.’
Wallace was powerful.
Extremely powerful.
But Iris knew exactly how large the gap between him and Nikolai currently was.
If Nikolai decided to act before Markus returned, Wallace alone wouldn’t be enough to stop him.
Iris exhaled slowly.
But that’s a problem for later.
For now, her mother was alive, Wallace was standing beside her, and two of the most dangerous men in the country were politely pretending they weren’t considering how best to kill each other.
Honestly, compared to how this day had gone the first time, Iris considered that an improvement.
She followed Sarah toward the kitchen with a small smile.
‘Enough about psychopaths.’
Iris rolled up her sleeves.
‘Time to show Mom what twenty years of cooking experience can do.’