The Hour of Separation

"And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation." - Khalil Gibran

The months following Port Townsend were complicated, to say the least, and if someone asked Charles how they got through it, he wasn't sure he could vocalize how they managed to make it all work. If you had asked him before Crystal came into their lives if he and Edwin had everything sorted out, he would have told you that they did. They'd been doing this for thirty years; they had a system, so of course, everything had to be sorted. Looking back, Charles couldn't believe how unbelievably stupid they both were. However, as Jenny loudly pointed out to both of them, even if they had been roaming this Earth for longer, they were still stupid teenagers, and no teenager had everything figured out.

So that's what Port Townsend became: an entire mess of dredging up everything they were running from and forcing them to face it head-on. The reality that Edwin could get dragged back to hell was no longer a possibility; it happened, and even though the Night Nurse reassured them that it wouldn't happen again, Charles didn't trust her or the Lost and Found department. Charles thought he had buried everything that had happened with his father and how it impacted him so deeply that it didn't matter anymore. Then, the Delvin case happened, and he kicked a woman into a monster. He could rationalize it all he wanted. But Charles couldn't get the expressions on Edwin, Niko, and Crystal's faces out of his mind.

Crystal was a member of the Agency now, and while Charles missed their brief romantic relationship, he also knew that it was something that couldn't ever last. There was a reason that he and Edwin didn't have many living acquaintances, let alone close friends. The living faded; he spent the last thirty years watching his parents slowly succumb to the passage of time through a mirror and drawing out what he and Crystal had felt was unfair to both of them. So, what felt like mere moments after she stepped foot onto British soil, they ended things but pledged to remain close friends. It was going to hurt when they eventually lost her the same way it hurt when Niko was gone.

Niko's loss impacted Edwin more than Charles could even begin to put into words, and he wondered how his partner would recover from this. Of the two of them, Edwin was even less inclined to form attachments to the living and hadn't been close to anyone besides Charles since he was alive. Charles wondered how he would try to pull Edwin out of this spiral and keep him from sinking back into himself when Niko just returned. It was more like she fell out of a crack in the universe, holding Tragic Mike's lucky charm, inexplicitly covered in snow, and somehow alive.

It was a week after Crystal had landed in London, and the three of them were in the middle of some three-way nasty argument that Charles, for the life of him, could not even remember what it was about. Charles wasn't lying when he said that Crystal and Edwin were alike, so when they really fought, it was explosive, and his patience for trying to mitigate them had run out a while ago, so now they were yelling at each other. Then, there was a crack so loud that Charles thought the entire building was about to collapse or some natural disaster just occurred, and the pressure in the room changed like it had just ascended or descended a great height. The weird thing was that a pressure change shouldn't have impacted him and Edwin, but Charles swore that his ears popped. He was about to say something when the world in front of them split open.

Charles acted impulsively, throwing Edwin and Crystal behind him because the last time they saw something similar, it dragged Edwin back to hell, and he wasn't about to let that happen. No fire or brimstone came out of this crack; instead, they were blasted with freezing cold air and snow, another sensation that Charles should not have been able to feel, yet here they were. He blinked, and then Niko Sasaki was walking through the crack, wearing pink snow gear and with a dazed expression on her face. As soon as both of her feet touched the ground, the pressure equalized again; there was another crack, and it was gone. The whole thing happened in under a minute, and no one moved.

"Oh, is this what your office looks like? It suits both of you," Niko said, breaking the tension in the room. Crystal shoved Charles aside, touched Niko's hand, and her eyes went white. A brief second later, she looked back at them with tears in her eyes.

"It's really her, and she's alive," Crystal whispered. Things got a bit blurry from there, as many hugs were shared, and everyone asked many questions with very few answers. Unfortunately, Niko didn't know where she was. She was somewhere cold and in an igloo with the sprites, holding Tragic Mike's lucky charm until she felt she needed to leave.

"I heard the three of you," Niko explained after they had helped her out of her snow gear and into some of Crystal's more weather-appropriate clothes.

"What do you mean?" Edwin asked.

"I could hear the three of you arguing, and I hated that you were all fighting. So I followed the sound because I wanted to try and help the fight stop, then the light happened, and now I'm here," she replied. "How long has it been? Time felt weird there."

"A couple of weeks," Charles replied. So, no one had any explanation as to where she was or how she got back, but while Charles might be a lapsed Catholic, he knew when to count a blessing, and this was one. Niko was the balm that settled all of them again, and after going through the very weird process of getting in touch with her family to explain that she wasn't actually dead, it felt like things were settling.

So everything had been chaos, and they were all stumbling through it; the thing that Charles couldn't stop thinking about was that moment on the stairs with Edwin. He didn't care who Edwin loved, so his coming out meant virtually nothing to Charles. The confession, however, and the way Edwin looked at him when he said they had forever to figure it out was the other thing he couldn't stop thinking about. 'Forever' was a long time, and Charles tried to convince himself that it was best just to let that sit on the back burner. There was too much else to deal with and he and Edwin had all the time in the world. Port Townsend was behind them, and everyone was settling into their new place within the Agency. Maybe they could have a bit of a break so they could all metaphorically breathe.

+++

Charles was a little surprised when Jenny called the girls and announced that she was "so fucking done" with everything in Port Townsend and wanted to get things started so she could move to London. Crystal and Niko seemed thrilled about this idea, but Charles exchanged a wary glance with Edwin because they thought the same thing. However, while the girls happily talked to Jenny over speaker phone so they could hear the entire conversation, phones were something that they couldn't interact with. So, if they wanted to tell Jenny their concerns, it meant they would have to mirror-hop back to the last place Charles wanted to go.

Edwin didn't look entirely thrilled about the idea either.

After double-checking the time zones and making sure they wouldn't be popping in an awful time, they walked through the mirror and into the apartment that Crystal once lived in. It was empty, not a trace of any of them left behind, and somehow everything felt like it had happened years ago and just yesterday at the same time. They made their way through the building to where they could hear Jenny moving around, but Charles put a hand on Edwin's arm to stop him from just walking into a room.

"Oi, Jenny, it's Charles and Edwin. We need to talk to you," Charles called from behind a closed door. Edwin raised an eyebrow, but Charles shrugged. "If anyone would have an iron meat clever and the ability to throw it across the room, it would be Jenny."

"That's a fair assessment," Edwin replied. The door opened, and she glared at the two of them, but she was not carrying any weapons, which did seem like a win for them.

"Is that about as close as you two come to calling ahead?" she asked, deeply unimpressed with them as always.

"We usually just walk in," Edwin replied. The two of them stared at each other for a moment until Jenny stepped aside so she could let them into her home. It was a symbolic welcome, but the two of them were learning the importance of respecting closed doors the more time they spent with the living. Jenny's place was already mostly packed up as if she was more than eager to leave this building as soon as possible. Charles could only guess that it held more than a few bad memories.

"So why are you two here?" she asked, her arms crossed.

"Because we can't talk over the phone," Charles replied, and Jenny nodded as if that made sense to her. "We heard that you want to move to London, and we have some concerns about that."

"I don't want to be lectured about what I can or can't do with my life from two dead teenagers," Jenny replied, and her voice had more of an edge to it than normal.

"If I were to lecture you, I assure you you would know. I've been told many times I'm not subtle when I start to lecture," Edwin said. "You mentioned on the phone that you want to leave town because you are in tune with all the supernatural dealings here. London is much larger than Port Townsend. If you go to London, then you will see more than you can see now. You'll see all sorts of things because Charles and I are still finding new things out there, and we've been doing this for thirty years. So London is not a place to go and escape all of this. It's walking into the belly of the beast."

"Unfortunately, the dead are everywhere, but the bigger and older the city, the more history it has, and the weirder shit tends to get. London is very old, so it gets bloody weird. We weren't sure you knew or were thinking about that." Charles was always interested in the kind of ghosts and other things they tended to run into depending on how old the place they were investigating was. It was something that the two of them didn't even put together until they'd been working cases for ten years.

Jenny was fidgeting in a way that Charles was very familiar with. Edwin would fidget similarly when something was bothering him or he was trying to put his words together. So he knew she needed a minute to figure out what she wanted to say. When it looked like Edwin was about to say something, Charles gently knocked their shoulders together, and Edwin remained silent.

"I know London is going to be worse in that there will be more," Jenny said carefully, "but Port Townsend is somehow even worse because I'm going through it by myself. I don't know who I can trust here if I see something fucked up. If I'm in London, I'm near all of you, so at least there is someone else nearby I can bitch about all of this with who will understand instead of sending me to the psych ward."

It was an aspect of being able to see the dead that Charles had never really considered, and judging by the expression on Edwin's face, he hadn't considered it either. They always had each other to lean on, so none of this was lonely for them, and now the girls were also here. The argument could be made that they were just a quick mirror hop away, but they weren't Crystal and Niko, and they couldn't relate to Jenny the way the girls could.

"Charles and I will do what we can to expedite any paperwork you need to come to London," Edwin said.

"Remind Crystal not all of us are fucking rich, and I'll have to work, so a visa where I can work would be important," Jenny replied.

"We're on it," Charles said.

It turned out that with the combination of Edwin's brain, Crystal's street smarts and a seemingly endless line of credit, and Niko's reading comprehension, getting Jenny the paperwork she needed was completed a lot faster than it would have taken anyone else. Crystal seemed positively giddy at the idea of taking her parent's money and investing it into Jenny's new store somewhere in the city because they couldn't get mad at her for investing in a business. Charles knew he wasn't much help regarding a paperwork issue, so he spent far too much time in his backpack trying to figure out the best way to help Jenny protect herself.

Niko and Crystal were closer to the line of fire, but he was usually there to put himself between them and anyone trying to get a hit in. Jenny was a different story. She was an adult who would be working and wouldn't be super close to the agency either. Closer than halfway across the world, but still not within walking distance, and while more than one mirror was absolutely necessary when she got her shop location, Charles wanted something more tangible.

He'd acquired a fair amount of shit over the years, and while some of it was extremely specific, some of it was more general, and others were damn near run of the mill. The idea of doing something to a meat clever came to mind, but Charles knew more than anyone that keeping some distance between you and your opponent was the way to survive a fight. It was why he liked using his cricket bat so much and tried to keep anything from getting up close and personal whenever possible. He had enough up close and personal beatings to last a lifetime, and the belt scars he knew were on his back itched when he thought about it too much, even though it was an itch that was only in his mind.

So when Charles saw the baseball bat sitting in a far corner, it almost seemed too perfect. Jenny had offhandedly mentioned the strict gun laws in the United Kingdom, and something else would look out of place. However, A baseball bat was only a weapon when used as such. Until then, it was only a piece of sports equipment. It was also a match to his own cricket bat that amused Charles more than he wanted to admit. There were modifications that they could make, so it was more than just a baseball bat; it seemed like a good place to start.

When he finally crawled out of his backpack, Charles was surprised to find that the sun was down, the girls were gone, and Edwin was stretched out comfortably on the couch reading a book like he didn't have a care in the world.

"I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to send a search party down there to find you," Edwin said.

"Very funny, but I think I found something for Jenny to keep in her shop that will help keep her safe but also won't draw too much attention," Charles replied as he pulled the bat out of his backpack. "I figured we could enhance it or make it better like we do with my bat." Edwin didn't like to admit it because tinkering with things was more Charles's thing, but Charles also knew that Edwin very much enjoyed screwing around with runes and magic to try and make things better.

"Excellent idea, Charles; let me see what I can find." So, while the girls were sleeping and between cases, they worked on making the bat as powerful as possible while not altering its outside appearance too much. When Charles suggested taking the wooden bat and putting iron nails on the outside as a joke, Edwin looked at him like he was deeply unimpressed and might be rethinking their partnership for half a moment. So it was a lot of looking up runes in ancient books, carving said runes into the wood, and all sorts of things that took as long as getting the paperwork approved.

By the time Jenny's bat was ready to take on the supernatural, Jenny herself was in the United Kingdom and had a storefront that she was working on putting together. Crystal's parents were not thrilled about the investment, but they took it much better than she thought they would.

"They said they were impressed I was doing something so mature as investing in a business, even if it was with their money," she explained one night they were working on getting everything ready. Charles knew that there was more to that statement because his dad wouldn't have just said a compliment without throwing in an insult or disparaging final world either. "However, they also wanted me to know that most small businesses fail, and this will probably be a waste."

Yeah, that sounded about right.

Jenny was far too amused when they presented her with the bat but seemed to understand that it was powerful when Edwin started listing everything they had done to it to make it capable of taking on the supernatural. She had already seen a few things wandering around the city that set her on edge, which is what they warned her about. She accepted the bat, and while Jenny didn't always come around, they certainly saw her regularly. Niko and Crystal both looked a little less tense when Jenny flipped that 'closed' sign to 'open' for the first time because it meant their all too human friend was closer and easier to protect. It was an instinct that Charles could relate to all too easily.

+++

It was ten months after the events of Port Townsend, and Charles really wanted to collapse on their terrible couch and maybe not move for the next day or two. The case they had just closed was grueling, and he nearly tripped over his own feet when he walked through the mirror and back into the office. It was Edwin's steady hand on his shoulder that kept Charles from faceplanting directly onto their carpet. Ghosts didn't feel exhaustion in the physical sense, but this case had a lot of moving parts, and mental exhaustion was very much something they could still feel.

"Edwin, mate, please tell me we can take a break. Just for a day?" Charles asked. Even though it had been months, the Night Nurse did her best to interact with them as little as possible. She would sweep into the office, drop a pile of cases on the desk, tell them to finish the work, and then leave without another word. Charles tried to get her to laugh once or twice by calling her Charlie, but the look she gave him made Charles stop that immediately. It wasn't fear, exactly, but she was cautious around him, which was fair, but he didn't like it.

She was a walking reminder of reliving being in the lake, the bone cold chill, the way he couldn't stop shivering, the way it hurt to move from where the rocks hit him, and he was a reminder to her of Angela and getting kicked into a monster. Apprehension toward each other wasn't surprising, but that didn't mean he liked it.

"We still have a lot of pending cases," Edwin said as he looked at the stack from the Night Nurse sitting on the desk. Charles could tell that Edwin was thinking the same thing he was; their continued safety from Death and hell was contingent on them being useful, and they weren't useful if they weren't solving cases. Edwin, as usual, was on the same wavelength and said what Charles was already thinking. "That being said, if we are not properly rested, we won't be at our sharpest, and it will take us longer to solve the cases to begin with."

"Brills, break it is, and that means for you, too. Grab an actual fiction book and get over here so you can do your version of relaxing," Charles said as he collapsed onto the couch. The couch wasn't large, but if he bent his legs, he could lie back, and Edwin would have a place to sit down comfortably. It took a moment or two, but eventually, Edwin joined him on the couch. Charles was content to zone out here for a little while when Edwin cleared his throat, and Charles sat up on his elbows.

"If you wanted to stretch out completely and put your feet in my lap, I would not mind," Edwin said carefully as if he were making sure each word was perfectly chosen. "You have to take your shoes off first." Charles blinked as he watched Edwin carefully, but Edwin was doing his best to look anywhere but Charles. He was about to ask if Edwin was sure, but Edwin rarely said things he didn't mean.

"That sounds great, thank you," Charles replied, trying to ignore just how breathless he sounded even though he did not need to breathe. He kicked off his shoes and very carefully stretched his legs out to their full length. He was tentative about it, but Edwin, as usual, took the direct approach and moved Charles' feet onto his lap like it was no big deal. Then, he started reading.

Charles folded his hands behind his head and tried to tell himself this wasn't a big deal. He and Edwin were more tactile when they were alone than people realized, but this was still new. The hand resting gently on his ankle and rubbing soft circles that Charles swore he could feel was new as well, but Edwin was reading like it was nothing, so Charles was also going to act like nothing was happening. He also refused to think about the fact that the hand on his ankle was more grounding than anything he had experienced in a long time. This was fine, everything was fine, and that was the mantra Charles repeated as he tried to zone out and let his mind rest.

It turned out that relaxing was not in the cards for the "Dead Boys" part of the Dead Boys Detective Agency. It was well into the night, so Charles didn't expect any company. Even though they worked at night often, Niko and Crystal did try to sleep during normal sleeping hours when possible. So when Crystal burst through the door at 3 AM, Charles wouldn't lie that he might have jumped straight out of his skin. Edwin had also startled hard enough that he had dropped the book he was reading.

Before either of them could say a word, Crystal said, "Someone broke into Jenny's shop, and they tried to hurt her. She had to use the bat." That was enough to get both of them moving quickly. A job like that sounded like something that Scottland Yard would try and solve, but he and Edwin weren't exactly good at letting the living do a job that a dead boy could do, even more so when someone they cared about was involved.

"We'll mirror hop and meet you there," Edwin said, and Crystal was out the door before he even completed his sentence. They gathered their things as quickly as possible and didn't even bother making themselves entirely presentable. This wasn't some normal client; this was Jenny, who looked out for Niko and Crystal in Port Townsend and kept an eye on all of them now; she wouldn't care if Edwin wasn't wearing a jacket or if Charles was in just his polo shirt. They mirror-hopped across town, emerged in the store's backroom, and made their way to the front.

The front door was smashed open, and glass was everywhere on the ground. There was evidence that Scottland Yard had been here and, if the fading sirens were anything to go by, had just left. Jenny was sitting on a chair in the middle of the shop with an ice pack pressed to her head and the bat sitting at her feet. Niko had her arms around her and seemed to be very nervous.

"You were right," Jenny said once she noticed that they had arrived, "the bat did pack a punch and is probably the only reason I'm alive." That statement was not what Charles wanted to hear if the way Edwin clenched his fists was anything to go by; it wasn't what he wanted to hear either.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Edwin asked, and Jenny stared without saying a word. Charles was about to ask Niko if medical had been by to make sure she didn't have a head injury when Jenny spoke again.

"Since when do the Dead Boy Detective's take on armed robbery?" she asked.

"When they involve our friends," Charles replied as Crystal made her way through the door. "We'd like to help you figure out who did this so you can at least send them the bill for the door." It wasn't a case they would normally take, and the Night Nurse would pitch a fit, but Charles was more than willing to bear the brunt of that screaming match. Just because they were working with the Lost and Found department didn't mean every case they took on had to be one of theirs, and this was different. It was like Crystal or Niko's cases, minus the supernatural element, but still involved one of the handful of living people that had wormed their way into their afterlives.

"I told you that they would help," Niko said with a bright smile. Jenny still didn't look entirely convinced, but that was okay.

"It was well past closing, and I was working in the storefront when someone smashed the door in," Jenny explained. "It was a group of three people, men; I couldn't tell how old they were. They saw me and weren't surprised; it was just me in the store. They didn't tell me to empty the drawer or the safe. They didn't ask me for money or anything. It was like the three of us were in a stalemate for half a second. One had a crowbar, another had a switchblade, and another had brass knuckles of some kind. I don't remember who broke the stalemate, but I grabbed the bat and fought for my life. I don't think they were expecting me to be armed, and they certainly weren't expecting what looked like a normal wooden baseball bat to pack that hard of a punch.

"I got some good hits in, and someone must have heard the door break because they took off as soon as the sirens started approaching," Jenny continued. "It wasn't until they were gone that I realized one of them got me in the head. From there, I got in touch with the police, Niko, and Crystal, and now you're here. Scottland Yard seemed to think it was just a bunch of kids running around looking to do some damage."

"But you don't think so, and neither do I," Edwin said as he looked up from the notes he was taking in his notebook. "They never demanded your money, so it wasn't a robbery, and you said they didn't seem surprised to see you."

"You think someone intentionally came here to hurt Jenny?" Crystal asked.

"Or someone hired those boys to do the job," Edwin said. "Did they leave anything behind that the police didn't collect?" Jenny shook her head and looked like she regretted that the second she did it. Crystal turned, walked toward the broken door, and carefully looked it over, but she shook her head.

"If there is something there, it's so small that I can't see it, and I won't be able to read it," Crystal replied.

"They might have ditched the weapons when Scottland Yard pulled up," Charles said. "We'll get the door boarded up and then see if we can find a random crowbar, knife, or brass knuckles lying in a gutter." There were still some boards left over from the initial construction of the store, and Niko insisted that Jenny stay the night in the flat she shared with Crystal. Once the two of them were safely in a taxi, they fanned out, hoping to find some lead for Jenny's case.

Charles didn't mind wandering the streets of London alone at night, but he was maybe a little distracted. That was the excuse he would use if anyone asked him about it. Crystal was out there, wandering around alone, and people were terrible, so that wasn't one of their smarter ideas. He was thinking about lying on that couch with Edwin, and his feet fell on Edwin's lap, and there was slight pressure on his ankle. Jenny was a friend, and she had just been attacked, and he was trying to find a weapon on the ground. Charles was distracted, and that was how someone had gotten the drop on him.

Iron did more than burn and cause extreme amounts of pain for a ghost. It knocked them straight on their asses and made them vulnerable to someone doing something nefarious. Charles sensed movement around him, but he turned around too late, and something iron smashed into his temple. The world around him immediately went blurry, and Charles hit the ground hard enough that if he'd been alive, he might have broken a bone. He didn't have a weapon in hand and nothing to defend himself, so whoever just got the drop on him was about to have the perfect opportunity to get another shot in, and Charles tried to brace himself for it.

But the hit never came.

The world around him slowly came back into focus, and there didn't appear to be anyone around him. The street he was exploring was basically deserted, and no one was running in any direction. It was like something dropped out of nowhere, smashed his head in, and then vanished. Charles could feel the burn on his head healing, but it was slow moving, and he was still feeling very unsteady on his feet, so standing up was not something he planned on doing. One moment, he was holding his head and trying to catch his bearings, and the next, Edwin and Crystal were sitting with him, and they both looked very worried.

"Charles, what happened to your head?" Edwin asked, looking rather horrified, which meant that whatever was going on still looked rather nasty.

"Not sure," Charles replied as they both helped him to his feet. "Something got the drop on me, smashed my head in with iron, and took off. I was a sitting duck, and they just left."

"We didn't see anyone when we made our way over here," Crystal said. "We did find brass knuckles, so I'm giving these to you. I'm catching a few hours of sleep, and I'll be back at the office to see if I can get anything from them." She reached forward and gently touched the still healing burn on his head; the touch of the living was still so different from Edwin's. He couldn't feel her, but he knew her hand was soft and caring as it touched his face, which was the feeling Charles latched onto.

"Excellent idea, Crystal. We will make sure you get into a taxi, and then I'll make sure he ends up safely back at the office," Edwin replied. It appeared that Charles's opinion on this matter wasn't being taken into consideration. However, when he realized how unsteady he was, he didn't blame Edwin for being a bit overprotective right now. Once Crystal was safely in a taxi on the way home, they mirror hopped back to the office, and once again, they both collapsed onto the sofa.

"How bad is it?" Charles asked, trying not to focus on Edwin gently cupping his jaw so he could inspect the burn. The late-night adventure meant that Edwin wasn't wearing his gloves, so the strange sense of energy and the slight sensation of touch came from skin-to-skin contact.

"It's bad enough that if they wanted to, they could have done significant damage to you, and the fact that they didn't is puzzling," Edwin replied. Charles was still very distracted by how close they were sitting, even though being distracted ended poorly for him. "It's healing slowly, and I should keep an eye on it, but I want you to rest."

"Oh, okay," Charles replied, a little confused by the fact that Edwin was making this sound like some massive life-changing announcement he was about to make.

"You should put your head in my lap. Then I can watch the burn, and you can rest," Edwin said, and Charles stood corrected; he was making life-changing announcements because Charles was briefly sure he blacked out for a second. There was the level of tactile, and he and Edwin usually were, and then there was this. However, despite how confident his voice sounded in this idea, the way Edwin held his hands showed just how anxious he was about this, and Charles would not let things get weird between them.

"You're the brains of this operation, mate; I follow your lead," he replied. It took a little awkward shifting around, but it ended with Charles resting his head in his best friend's lap as said best friend gently touched his head and hair. He refused to say that he was being petted, and he also refused to admit that it was a nice feeling. Those were thoughts for another time. For now, Charles closed his eyes and let himself doze off to the subtle feeling of Edwin's fingers gently checking that he was healing.

+++

By the time Crystal and Niko arrived in the office holding large coffees in both hands and looking like they hated their lives a little bit, Charles felt a little bad about how well-rested he felt. For a good portion of the night, he was comfortably lying on Edwin's lap, and eventually, after it was apparent that the wound from the iron had healed, Edwin didn't stop touching. Instead, Edwin began to gently run his fingers through Charles's hair like it was nothing unusual, and Charles let himself bask in it. Still, it wasn't fun to see how miserable the girls were when they got so little sleep, and even Niko could be a bit snippy when she was extremely sleep-deprived.

"Jenny is at home dealing with insurance," Crystal said. Charles watched with muted horror as she chugged one of the extra-large coffees in one go and dropped the cup into the trash can without flinching. A quick glance at Edwin revealed that he was also a little taken aback by this display. They really needed to get the girls sleeping more than a couple of hours a night.

"She wanted me to tell you guys that Scottland Yard called this morning, and they have absolutely no leads on who those three people who broke into the shop were," Niko said with a sigh. "She didn't sound surprised and also said that 'those two dead boys are probably going to be thrilled they get to do the job the living can't.'" Niko said the last part with air quotes, and she specifically put her coffee down to do said air quotes.

"Sometimes I'm really not sure whether or not she likes us," Charles said out loud, and Edwin hummed in agreement.

"All right, let's get this over with. Hand me the knuckles." Crystal was comfortable in one of the office chairs, her hand held out expectantly. Edwin picked up the brass knuckles they had managed to find last night, and they watched as her eyes went white. There was something about watching Crystal tap into her powers that still made Charles a little nervous for reasons that he couldn't quite put into words. However, she came back out of the trance rather quickly and began to scribble some notes in the leatherbound notebook she shameless stole from Edwin a week into her official return to London.

"Anything that is specifically useful to this case?" Edwin asked. When they started working together, Edwin would have just asked if she saw anything useful, which would have caused an argument. However, they were much better at not pushing each other's buttons now. The notebook writing was because Edwin would get twitchy, and Crystal would forget a detail or not share everything with them. Everyone was adapting.

"Yeah, this did belong to one of the guys that broke into the store, so we got lucky there," Crystal replied, but she didn't sound particularly happy about it. "There was something about his intentions that didn't feel right to me, but it was too vague for me to catch anything. I saw the pub where they like to meet so we could try to confront them in person. They just felt like normal, everyday assholes to me, but I can only get so much from an object someone had for a few hours." Charles wasn't super into the idea of meeting these guys, but when dealing with the living, you had to bring the living. Crystal and Niko pulled up pictures of all three men on the internet, and it still baffled him how many pictures of themselves were out there for people to see. He and Edwin mirror-hopped relatively close to the location while the girls took the tube, but something bothered Charles.

"Do you think these guys are also the ones that hit me that night?" he asked.

"They would have to be able to see us and know that iron harms us," Edwin replied as they stopped in front of the pub. "There's a very easy way to test that theory, though," and then Edwin phased through the wall of the pub. Charles wanted to strangle him because if this was the same person, he was walking right up to someone dangerous. However, no one in the pub reacted when Charles followed right behind him. The three guys who attacked Jenny had absolutely no reaction either of them, so they couldn't see ghosts, so they weren't the ones who tried to take Charles's head off.

The door opened, and the girls walked in, taking a seat far away from the three men. No one paid them much attention aside from the fact that two pretty young women walked into the room. The eyes of the three men were definitely on them, and Charles wanted to get his bat out to see what these men thought of a fair fight instead of three men to one woman, even if that one woman was Jenny.

"Judging by the lack of reaction, I'm guessing they can't see you," Crystal said, but she was facing Niko and made it look like they were having a conversation.

"It appears that they cannot, and the little bits of their conversation we have overheard have been decidedly boring as well," Edwin replied.

"Does this mean we get to do the direct approach?" Niko said, and she looked a little too excited about that, even though Charles didn't know what that was. Crystal wiggled her eyebrows, and the two of them got up and walked over to the bar and sat down right next to the three men. They ordered some food and began to chat with these men.

"The direct approach is more direct than I would like," Charles muttered. He wasn't jealous, not by a longshot, but he knew what men in pubs could be like with girls they thought were vulnerable. They had solved far too many cases of young women who didn't think the men they were chatting up were a threat either. Edwin moved a little closer to him so their shoulders touched, and it was a grounding feeling.

"They are strong and can take care of themselves," Edwin said softly, "and we're not going anywhere." It was enough to settle some of his nerves, but he still didn't like that the direct approach took the better part of the afternoon and into the evening. They could see the moment Crystal could touch one of them and get her reading while Niko distracted the other two with a story about Japan. It wasn't long after that that the girls finally paid for their food and left the pub, but not after giving them two fake phone numbers. Thankfully, the men didn't appear to be following them to the tube, but Charles and Edwin were not mirror-hopping home today.

"They were there to hurt Jenny," Crystal said softly as they waited for the train. "And not only were they there to hurt Jenny, they were hired to do it. Some guy paid the three of them a couple hundred pounds to go to Jenny's place and hurt her but didn't tell her why."

"Were you able to get a face? A name?" Edwin asked, but Crystal shook her head.

"It was like he had blurred his own face in his memory, like someone smudged it. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen," she replied. "I have names, and we can figure out how to get them to Scottland Yard. I know they have faces from the security camera and just needed names to go with those faces."

"Why would someone want to hurt Jenny?" Niko asked, but Charles glanced at Edwin. He didn't want to say it out loud, but of the four standing on the train platform, he and Edwin had enemies and people who weren't fond of them running around. They weren't subtle about their connection to Jenny, and someone could have noticed. Edwin shook his head subtly, and Charles said nothing; there wasn't any proof right now, but once they had some, they would let Jenny know and figure out some way to make it up to her.

All of these months later, Edwin still didn't know how he felt about the events at Port Townsend. In some ways, it was some of the worst moments of his life, what with going back to hell, Esther's table, and losing Niko. At the same time, it was also where he met Niko, gained Crystal as a begrudging friend, and finally admitted to himself how he felt about Charles. Niko told him much later that he was living in denial, which was probably true, but that didn't make it any less of an Earth-shattering experience.

For all that things changed after those events, the more they stayed the same as well. They lost Niko, but she found her way back to them just when it felt like the three of them might actually say something to send everyone going in different directions for good. The Night Nurse was there to protect them from the Lost and Found department and assured him that he wasn't going to hell anymore, but Death was still a problem. The Night Nurse couldn't seem to find a solid answer as to whether or not they would be protected if Death caught them, so they were still running from her. Crystal and Niko were part of the agency now, but they were falling into place flawlessly, and solving cases was going smoothly.

Then there was his relationship with Charles.

When Edwin confessed how he felt on those stairs, he didn't think they would make it out. Or, maybe that wasn't the truth; he didn't specifically think he would make it out because the idea of Charles being trapped down there with him was so horrifying that Edwin couldn't let himself linger on it for even a second. He knew it was a bad time, but Edwin could feel the spider right behind them. Even if they couldn't see or hear it, it was gaining on them, and if he didn't tell Charles right now, he was terrified he wouldn't get another chance. If he got pulled back down, there was no telling where he would go, where he would end up, or if Charles would even find him again if he turned around and ventured back into hell.

So Edwin knew his timing was atrocious, but it was like he was rooted in place, unable to move, and staring down the concept of oblivion without the person who meant the most to him. He had to say it. It stung a little how little Charles seemed to react to his confession until Edwin realized that he needed to be extremely specific about what kind of love he was discussing.

"I'm in love with you," he said. Whatever reaction he thought Charles would have, he didn't predict his best friend staring directly into his eyes and confessing that while he didn't feel the same, they had all the time in the world to figure out the future. It was the last spark of hope Edwin needed to make his feet move again so they could race out of hell and into the world again.

Then Esther happened, and he was sure things would feel awkward or stilted between them, but Edwin was surprised it felt easier. Both of them had been hiding things from each other before Port Townsend, and now, there were fewer secrets between them, and Edwin relished the feeling. He wasn't fond of touch from others, but after three decades of working with Charles, Edwin had gotten more used to it than the girls probably would have expected. However, he didn't feel strange about touching Charles back anymore. There wasn't this lingering sense of shame that he shouldn't enjoy it when their shoulders were pressed together or when they sat too close on the couch.

"I don't feel shame when I touch Charles anymore," Edwin said to Niko on one of the rare nights it was just the two of them in the agency while Charles and Crystal were off at some concert for some band that he hadn't heard of.

"You used to feel ashamed about touching him?" Niko asked.

"Yes, and I think I felt even more shame about enjoying the fact that I was touching him, but I didn't even want to acknowledge my own shame," Edwin replied. Niko didn't know all of the details of his confession to Charles, and he was fairly sure that Crystal didn't know anything about it either, but Niko knew that he had confessed and that it didn't go how he wanted it to. It was rather obvious who he was talking about, so Edwin decided that being subtle was utterly pointless in this matter and spoke plainly.

"I know it's different for you and Charles, but touching people is so important, and humans need it. Why do you think I've been hugging you? I could tell you needed hugs," Niko replied. "I think that's also why Charles started initially hanging out with Crystal, only it was a little more romantic even if it isn't romantic anymore." Edwin tried not to examine why he was a little too happy about the fact that Crystal and Charles were no longer a romantic item, but they would talk about that another day.

"I am allowed to enjoy touching the person that I love," Edwin said, making sure it was a statement of fact and not a question. "As long as he likes it too, of course, and is consenting." Niko knocked her shoulder into his, but she smiled like she knew something he didn't. However, when he pressed her for more information, she kept dodging the question, and before long, it was forgotten as they picked a new show to start watching.

+++

The attack on Jenny did not sit right with Edwin, and he could tell by Charles's acting that he was just as worried about it. Once they were sure the girls were safe at home, they mirror-hopped back to the office, and Edwin tried to think of the best way to send Scottland Yard a tip that would get these men arrested.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Charles asked. He was pacing, which was never a good sign; Charles only paced when something really bothered him.

"That the reason Jenny was attacked could and probably is linked to us? Yes, I am," Edwin replied.

"What are we supposed to do about it? Should we even tell her if it's just a hunch? Should we tell Niko and Crystal? Are they going to blame us?" Charles was starting to talk a little faster, and Edwin could see this spiral starting, and he wasn't about to let it continue. He stopped Charles pacing with both hands on his friend's shoulders so they were inches apart and eye to eye.

"We will look out for them, and we will try to see if we can figure out who it is if that is what's going on," Edwim said carefully. "This is the risk we are taking having attachments to the living; they are fragile, but we will protect them, both of us, to the best of our abilities." The words "for as long as we can" hung unspoken in the air because their time with the girls was finite; they both knew that, but this attack was another stark reminder of how easily this could all be taken away. Charles leaned forward, and for half a second, Edwin thought he was about to get his second kiss. However, Charles pressed their foreheads together and stayed there. If Edwin still needed to breathe, he was sure he would be breathless right now, but he didn't want to break this moment.

"Thank you," Charles whispered, though Edwin wasn't sure what exactly he was being thanked for. The moment between them finally broke and Edwin was so lost in said moment that he hadn't even felt Charles touch his forearms. "Let's figure out how to get those assholes arrested; maybe their benefactor will come out and do something if Scottland Yard has them."

"Excellent idea, as always, Charles," Edwin said, and they broke apart. The moment was officially over, but Edwin swore that his hands were shaking just a little for the rest of the night as they worked. If it was real and they were shaking, Charles did him a kindness and chose not to comment on it.

+++

The three men who attacked Jenny were taken in by Scottland Yard, but no one came to visit them, and no one called them either. Or at least, that was what Charles and Edwin could glean when they looked in the files and records in the middle of the night. Whoever this benefactor was, they weren't coming to rescue these boys, but they also must have been pretty confident that the attackers wouldn't tell the police about him to get a lesser sentence.

"It's sloppy," Charles said one night when they were taking a break from researching for another case. The attackers were arrested three days ago, and aside from contacting solicitors, they hadn't said a word to anyone about why they did this, and they hadn't said anything about being hired.

"Crystal did say that his face was smudged in their memories. Maybe they can't even remember what he looks like, and they can't tell the police anything useful," Edwin replied.

"I don't know, something still feels off." Charles was an excellent detective in his own right, and Edwin knew better than anyone that a hunch like this that wouldn't go away usually meant something, even if you couldn't understand what it was.

"Let's go back and look at the records; maybe we missed something," Edwin replied. They gathered some of the things they would need, and Charles grabbed his backpack. They mirror-hopped to one of the bathrooms in Scottland Yard. However, Edwin was immediately suspicious because it was loud right out the door, and it was the middle of the night. It wasn't usually loud like this unless something happened. They phased through the wall and into a hallway where people, including police and paramedics, were running around. They had to move very carefully through the building, trying to stay as hidden as possible because if anyone had near-death experiences, it would be police officers. There was a chance they would be seen.

Edwin got a bad feeling when it became apparent that the chaos was centered on the holding cell where their suspects were. They were able to get into a spot where they could see what was going on, but everyone moving around them couldn't see them. There were three bodies on the floor, and paramedics were packing up their things. Edwin watched as the spirits of their suspects appeared, and the three of them all looked extremely confused, as if they didn't understand what was happening. Edwin wanted to get closer, to ask them what happened, but the soft blue light of death began to filter into the room. It appeared that petty assault and battery weren't enough to get someone sent to hell.

He and Charles frantically moved back from their hiding spot and pressed their backs against the furthest wall. It wasn't a great hiding spot; they were in an unused interrogation room, but they could still see that blue light shining from under the door, even with the bright lights overhead. Edwin didn't realize he had clasped Charles's hand until he was already doing it, and they were both holding on for dear life. Neither of them was wearing their gloves, so Charles's hand felt solid against his own. In his head, Edwin was trying to come up with a decent argument that he could use if they were found, which included their deal with the Lost and Found department and begging that they stay together, even if that meant passing along.

Edwin would give up all of this if the choice were doing this alone or crossing over with Charles.

The light faded, but neither of them moved or spoke a word for what felt like a long time. They could hear people moving around outside the integration room. It was still chaos out there, but Edwin wasn't inclined to move or let go of Charles's hand just yet. They glanced at each other and slowly pushed themselves to their feet, even if they hadn't released each other's hands yet. Edwin didn't know why they were trying to walk so silently like it would make a difference, but run in's with Death tended to make them both foolish, stupid, and more than a little terrified for a little while.

Edwin cracked the door open and was relieved to see nothing but police, medical personnel, and three corpses left.

"Any encounter is too close for comfort for me, mate," Charles muttered as he rested his forehead against Edwin's shoulder. He hummed in agreement, and they spent a little time trying to get as much information as possible without being seen by all the staff running around. Things were a bit vague, but from what they were able to understand, the three suspects just started beating each other, and they eventually beat each other to death.

"There was no argument that anyone heard or saw before the fight started," Edwin said after they got back to the office. "One moment, they were just sitting there, and the next, they were trying to tear each other apart. I hypothesize that anyone who can smudge their face in people's memory could also find a way to tell them to attack each other."

"You think they were compelled or possessed to attack each other?" Charles asked, and Edwin nodded. "How close would you need to be to make something like that happen?"

"Depending on the type of spell or enchantment, we could have walked right by them." Edwin tried to think if he saw anyone in the police station who looked out of place, but they were so focused on not being seen that he wasn't paying attention. However, whoever this person was, there was a chance they were the person who attacked Charles the other night so they could see ghosts. Judging by the look Charles was giving him, Edwin was doing a poor job of hiding just how much the thought of this person watching them without their knowledge set his nerves on edge.

+++

"What do you mean all three of them are dead?" Crystal asked the following day, and Edwin was a little confused about why this needed clarification because he thought they explained it succinctly.

"It means that the three suspects that attacked Jenny are now deceased--"

"Just because you are smart and an ass doesn't mean you need to be a smartass, Edwin," she interrupted. "Obviously, that was rhetorical, and you taking it literally is a you problem and not me." Niko and Charles sat on the couch, watching this exchange and hiding their laughter poorly. Crystal glared at both of them and then sighed heavily. "I'm assuming you're already considering why this could have happened? We're not going to assume Occam's razor and these three idiots decided to just off each other for the hell of it?"

"There is the chance that they all just got into a fight that no one could hear or see, and it got out of hand," Charles said. "I'd like to get a look at the footage myself. I, unfortunately, am all too familiar with what it looks like when blokes are trying to beat each other up and when they are trying to end a life." Edwin winced as he tried not to think about how Charles was all too familiar with up-close beating. Niko leaned in so their shoulders touched, but Edwin felt like acknowledging that might make things harder.

"Could we break into the morgue, and I could try to read their bodies? Maybe I'll be able to sense if someone else was behind the wheel in their final moments," Crystal suggested. She didn't usually offer to try and do readings on corpses, but apparently, these three were an exception that she was willing to make.

"You and Edwin can do that while Charles and I go back to the police station and see if we can get a look at that security footage," Niko suggested. "Oh! Crystal and Edwin should go to the morgue because Crystal is doing the reading, and Edwin knows about the magic while Charles and I can work on the police and technology angle. Since you were all about to say that my way of splitting all of us up wasn't a good idea." Edwin was about to argue against that and judging from Crystal's facial expression, she was as well, but the logic made sense.

"Very well, let us reconvene later," Edwin said.

+++

Edwin didn't work with Crystal one-on-one a lot, but that had a lot to do with how abrasive they were to each other to this day. Charles said it was because they were both far too similar for their own good, and without someone like Charles or Niko acting as a buffer between them, things tended to get a little nastier than they needed to. Edwin knew it was immature of him to fight with Crystal as he did because he knew how much of a benefit she was to the agency. He also knows that she was a good friend who nearly died fighting Esther to save him and Charles from what could have been an extensive torture session. He valued her insight and what she brought to the agency, and she was good company.

That didn't mean Edwin was willing to join her on public transportation when he could mirror-hop, which Crystal was extremely annoyed about.

While they might butt heads, Edwin knew that even if Crystal really made him angry one day, he would have to remove himself from the situation until he calmed down lest he say something he didn't mean. Niko and Charles would be devastated, and picturing the two of them sad was enough.

By the time Crystal made her way to the morgue, it was late in the night. It was in a different building from the police station, but there didn't appear to be anyone walking around in the middle of the night. That didn't mean there wasn't a security guard roaming about, and he didn't want Crystal to get arrested, which is what he told her when Edwin mentioned going in alone.

"What was the point of bringing me if you were just going to ditch me?" she asked.

"Let me do some reconnaissance, and if there is a way to safely get you into the building without someone finding you or it ending up on your record, I'll come get you," Edwin replied. "I know you might have a limitless bank account, but the rest of us wouldn't have the funds to post bail should you get arrested, or are we willing to put all of our faith in your parents answering their phones?" Crystal couldn't hide her wince at the comment about her parents, but she sighed heavily.

"All right, but you know I'm good at this, so find a way for me to get there so we can figure this out," Crystal replied. Edwin nodded and made his way into the morgue. He couldn't hear anyone moving throughout the building, but that didn't mean someone wasn't patrolling. There was security, and it did appear to be working, so they would have to figure out a way to disarm it if they wanted to get Crystal in to read the bodies. Edwin made his way to where they should have been kept and frowned.

All of the freezers were labeled, and he didn't see the names of any of the suspects that had attacked Jenny. There wasn't any other morgue they could have been sent to, and it only happened less than a day ago. There were three deaths within police custody, there would be an investigation to make there wasn't foul play on the part of the officers, so there had to be autopsies. Yet when he went looking, he couldn't find them anywhere. Edwin made his way to the main office and began to look through the paperwork that had been recently filed. As he did, he knocked the mouse on the desk, and the computer came on.

Crystal and Niko were doing their best to teach him some basics about modern technology, and Edwin was looking for anything that could indicate what happened here. There were files, but if something happened, people were more likely to use some sort of electronic correspondence. It took a little while, but he managed to find the email and the last sent message from the director of the morgue. It explained that there was a significant paperwork issue, and someone had sent the bodies off to a funeral home for cremation instead of to the morgue. No one caught it until the home had already disposed of the bodies.

It seemed like too much of a coincidence; Edwin was sure of that, even more so because no one could seem to find the suspects' personal effects. It was like it all just fell through the cracks, never to be seen again. So even if something of theirs did survive, no one knew where it was, and they were no closer to figuring out what happened. Crystal could tell something was wrong the moment Edwin walked outside.

"What happened?" she asked.

"There was a paperwork mix-up, and the bodies of our three suspects were shipped to a funeral home and cremated. By sheer coincidence, no one noticed, and none of their personal effects have been recovered either," Edwin replied.

"So we've got jack shit, and it seems very intentional," Crystal said, and Edwin hummed. "Either there are a lot of stupid people, or someone is trying to cover this up, and no one should be working this hard to cover up an assault that didn't cause serious injury."

"That does appear to be the case," Edwin replied. He hadn't realized that he had started walking down the road with Crystal like he would take the long way back to the office. They were having a discussion, so he decided that it was best to just keep moving for now.

"Do you and Charles know something, and you aren't telling us?" Crystal asked.

"No," Edwin replied without hesitating. "And I'm not lying to you either; I don't see a point in lying about this. We have our suspicions that this could be some form of targeted harassment or revenge, but we have no specifics as to who it could be. If we knew, we would tell you, if only so you and Niko would know who to avoid should you run into them on the tube." Crystal didn't say anything, and when Edwin looked at her, she was staring. He could feel his heckles rising as he was about to snap at her, asking what she was looking at when she nodded.

"It means a lot that you trust me," she said. Edwin didn't know what to say, so he decided to take a page out of Charles's playbook and let his actions speak for themselves. Instead of mirror-hopping back to the office at the first opportunity he could, Edwin took the long way with Crystal. They didn't say a word to each other, and sometimes, he had a time deciding whether or not silences were awkward, but this one felt very natural.

Considering everything that had happened with the attack on Jenny, Edwin wasn't even a little surprised when Charles and Niko returned and told them that absolutely nothing appeared on the footage that they were able to see. As far as they could tell, the suspects were talking, and then they were fighting. Charles, however, said that judging by the way they were trying to hit each other and the kind of damage they were doing, there was a good chance all three of them were trying to beat each other to death right from the start. That wasn't enough, and the trail went completely cold. Edwin didn't stop looking and hated how Jenny looked like she was regretting moving to London because of this, but there wasn't anything he could do. There were just some cases that couldn't be solved, and that was how things were.

His final act was checking in with the Night Nurse to see if she could get anything. However, all three of the suspects were above eighteen, so they weren't considered part of her department, and Edwin didn't really listen to her rant about the amount of paperwork it would be to request those files. Clearly, it wasn't a priority for her, and they were out of options. Other cases needed to be solved, but that didn't stop Edwin from keeping Jenny's case listed as "unsolved" on the wall as they worked.

Nearly six weeks later, all four of them were in the office sorting through cases and mail. It was Niko's favorite pastime, and she thought they were all complete disasters in terms of organization. Edwin took offense to that; his system was flawless, but Crystal liked to loudly remind him that his system was hyperspecific to him, and the only reason Charles knew it was through osmosis. When Edwin looked at Charles for help on the matter, he was engrossed in discussing something with Niko and didn't appear to be paying attention or pretending not to hear this fight.

So they were reorganizing the office even if it set Edwin's teeth on edge.

Charles was going through the mail at the moment since he was best equipped to filter out cases by importance just from quick glances at them, but when he picked up a letter and froze, Edwin wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Charles?"

"Have we ever gotten a letter addressed to one of us specifically?" Charles asked.

"Not that I can recall; why do you ask?" he replied.

"Because I have an envelope on here addressed to you and only you, Edwin." Charles held up an envelope, and Edwin saw that the letter was only addressed to him. Everyone was paying attention now because Charles was on edge as if the envelope was about to attack them. He stood up and slowly walked it over to Edwin, but he hesitated actually to hand it to him.

"I'll be okay," Edwin said soft enough that he wasn't sure the girls could hear him. Charles didn't look like he entirely believed him, but he put the letter down, and Edwin carefully looked it over. Nothing was out of the ordinary about it; the only difference was that it was addressed to him. Charles moved around the desk to stand behind Edwin so he could read the letter, but the girls didn't get any closer. Whatever tension they were reading in Charles was enough to keep them from getting any closer. Edwin opened the envelope, and within several words, he knew that nothing good would come from this.

"Absolutely not," Charles said loudly.

"Charles--" Edwin said.

"Are you two going to have a one-sided fight, or will you fill us in?" Crystal interrupted before either of them could really get going.

"It's from the Cat King. Apparently, someone has been killing the cats in Port Townsend, and something about it merits him wanting to get us involved," Edwin replied.

"You," Charles said. "He wants you, specifically, involved because that is who he asked and no one else." Edwin winced because it was not only that the Cat King was reaching out that would make Charles angry but also because this invitation didn't seem to extend to him. Also, at the end of the note, the Cat King signed with his name instead of his title, which made it seem like a personal favor instead of a professional summons. Edwin wouldn't put it past Thomas to do that specifically to cause problems with Charles because it would amuse him.

"He can't think you would actually go alone, right?" Niko asked. "I mean, Crystal and I really can't go because it's a long and expensive trip, but why would he think Edwin would go without Charles?"

"You said he's a trickster. Could this be a trick?" Crystal asked. "Could something happen if both of you show up and he asked for only you, Edwin?" The topic of Thomas was something that he and Charles hadn't touched on since they left Port Townsend, not in any real tangible way. The binding spell coming off, because he was dragged to hell, was an afterthought to everything else that happened afterward. He didn't think Thomas would try to bind him to Port Townsend again, but he would have to explain how he knew that, and that would reveal more than he really wanted to about any of their encounters.

"I believe we all came to a mutual understanding by the end of everything," Edwin said without answering the question directly. "You told me he played a part in freeing Charles and me from Esther, so I don't believe this is a trick to try and trap me again." He hesitated and really hoped that no one asked him to elaborate on why he knew this. "I believe he did this precisely because he wanted to cause a reaction. He knows Charles doesn't like him and knows I wouldn't go alone, so it'll amuse him when he hears about this interaction."

"So he's just a fucking dickhead on top of a creep--good to know," Charles snapped, but he looked up at the ceiling and released a breath slowly. "That being said, we need more allies than enemies." Edwin knew he was thinking about the attack on Jenny and the fact that it seemed targeted. Crystal raised both of her eyebrows, and Niko smiled.

"I didn't even consider that," Crystal said. "So, it sounds like we're taking the case? Edwin and Charles will go back and forth via mirror travel while Niko and I are the home team."

"Yes, that sounds like an excellent plan," Edwin said, but he couldn't take his eyes off of Charles. He hated seeing Charles so wound up, and he looked like one wrong move would make him smash something with his cricket bat. The girls don't stay much longer after that. Neither of them is stupid, and they seem to realize that Charles is very much not in his right mind to be around polite company. Edwin would take Charles in literally any form he was in, and there was very little he could say or do to hurt Edwin because he knew Charles wouldn't actually mean it, and it was coming from a place of anger. Crystal and Niko didn't know him as well, and Edwin knew Charles would spend weeks hating himself if he said something to hurt their feelings, even out of anger.

"I don't like this," Charles said once the girls were gone.

"I know you don't," Edwin replied carefully.

"He trapped us in Port Townsend; we couldn't leave. If it wasn't for him and that bloody bracelet, nothing with Ester would have happened, and we wouldn't have gotten on the Lost and Found's radar. As far as I'm concerned, everything terrible that happened to any of us in Port Townsend is on him because he wanted to fuck with us," Charles snapped.

"If you're following that line of logic, then it would actually be my fault," Edwin said without thinking, and he didn't think he had ever seen Charles turn his head to stare at him faster. If they had been alive, he would have been seriously concerned Charles would have just given himself whiplash. He didn't want to fight because this conversation wasn't going anywhere. "Which I don't blame myself, for what it's worth." Edwin walked forward and placed his hands on Charles's shoulders, hoping that the physical contact would have alleviated some of the tension. It amazed him how quickly Charles seemed to almost melt under his touch, and Edwin didn't want to think about what that could mean. "There was never any chance I was going alone, you know that, right?"

"Of course," Charles said as the fight continued going out of him, and he just looked tired. Edwin tried not to react when Charles placed one of his hands on top of Edwin's and squeezed it. "Just promise me if this is all bollocks, we'll leave. Not sticking around just because he might be an ally or anything."

"You have my word." That seemed to be enough for Charles, and while he still didn't look happy about all of this, he wasn't as angry or afraid. Considering what happened last time, Edwin couldn't really blame Charles for either of those reactions.

+++

Edwin wished he had been surprised that the letter had no relevant information besides Thomas's formal summons to Port Townsend. It was precisely the type of thing that he would do simply for the drama of it, but that meant they could only make headway into this by actually heading into town. The following day, the girls turned up, and Niko told them that Tragic Mike was on standby if they couldn't communicate via a mirror or anything like that. Edwin wanted to ask how she had Tragic Mike's phone number but decided that was a line of thought he could pursue on a different day. There was no use drawing all of this out any longer, so the mirror hopped across the world back to the town that held many memories that Edwin couldn't even categorize anymore.

"Does it need to be said that you should let me do the talking?" Edwin said as they walked through town and toward the warehouse.

"If that's how you want to handle this, Edwin, you're the brains," Charles replied. He didn't have a weapon on hand, but that didn't mean anything when it came to Charles. Even though he had mastered his backpack, Charles was carrying more items directly on his person now. On some level, Edwin knew that Charles blamed himself for not having a weapon or a lockpick on him when they got captured. Ever since then, Charles has usually had something else on him, while his cricket bat was more obvious and sometimes used as a distraction. He didn't have his bat, and Edwin wasn't sure what that meant.

They started to notice cats watching them the closer they got to the docks, but none of them were approaching. Edwin was surprised when they walked into the main room where Thomas had his makeshift throne, and there didn't appear to be a single cat anywhere in sight. Thomas himself was lounging on the throne comfortably in his human form. His face had a complicated expression when he saw the two of them walk in.

"Edwin, I believe that my summon was addressed to you and only you," Thomas said.

"It was, but you know that we are partners and, considering all of the circumstances of the past year, aren't exactly inclined to travel without each other," Edwin replied. He didn't feel bad at all exploiting what he went through with Esther if it meant Thomas wasn't going to make this a big deal. It seemed Thomas was going to make this challenging as he turned his attention to Charles.

"Last time, it was Edwin breaking my rules, and this time, it's you, Charlie-boy; whatever are we going to do about that?" Thomas said.

"Are we here to play games, or did we mirror-hop halfway across the bloody world for a boring conversation?" Charles said flatly without breaking eye contact with Thomas for a second. Edwin felt like he was already losing control of the situation. He tried to ask what was happening, but Thomas acted like he hadn't said anything.

"Games? Is that what you think all of this is?" Thomas asked, closing the distance between them. Edwin tried to speak again, but Thomas held up his hand. Edwin could feel the tingle of Thomas's magic across his skin and lost all his words. Charles still hadn't looked at him once. "We never really got the chance to chat the last time you were here, did we."

"You were too busy fucking with my best mate for the two of us to have a proper conversation. We fixing that now?" Charles's hand twitched, and Edwin swore he had seen something move into it. Edwin wasn't quite flailing around, but it seemed that no matter what he did, he wasn't getting either of their attention. Thomas smirked and began to circle Charles like he was a predator circling prey while Charles stayed still and stared straight ahead.

"I don't like rule breakers, Charlie-boy; what are we going to do with you?" Thomas asked.

"You're not going to call me by that name again." Charles lashed out with what appeared to be a plastic baton that expanded. Thomas managed to duck out of the way, but the distraction was enough for Charles to drop his bag and get his bat out. Edwin tried to take a step forward, but once again, Thomas put a hand up, freezing him in place, and he was forced to watch this. What worried Edwin more than anything was not that Thomas looked angry as he watched Charles twirl his bat; he looked interested in the way he looked at Edwin the first time they met.

Charles was a talented fighter; Edwin knew that, but Thomas was something completely different from anything they had come against before. Charles got a good hit in, and the various runes and magic they had carved into the bat meant that Thomas certainly felt the sting, but they were dealing with a shapeshifter. Every time Charles swung, Thomas would vanish and reappear behind him, taunting him. Charles swung at Thomas, but he vanished. Just as he reappeared, Charles kicked a foot out and sent Thomas onto the ground.

"Are we done?" Charles asked with his bat pointed down at Thomas. In a flash of purple smoke, Thomas vanished and kicked Charles hard enough that he fell to his knees. Edwin was panicking and trying to come up with something, anything he could without a voice and the inability to move. Thomas's nails were long and sharp, and when he put one of those nails under Charles's neck, Edwin thought he was about to watch the other half of his soul die in front of his eyes.

"Drop the bat and on your feet, slowly," Thomas said. Charles scowled but dropped his bat and slowly got to his feet with his hands raised. They were nearly nose to nose, with Thomas forcing eye contact with his nail under Charles's chin. They stared each other down for what felt like an eternity until Thomas grinned. "Oh, you are so much more interesting than Edwin gives you credit for."

"Are we done now?" Charles repeated, but this time, he sounded more resigned and annoyed than angry.

"For now." Thomas waved his hand, and Edwin could move and speak once again. He yanked Thomas's hand away from Charles without a second thought and tried to put himself between them. He wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, but the tension in the room seemed to have vanished, and Charles didn't look nearly as angry anymore as he picked up his bat and put it back into his backpack. "Don't worry about it, Edwin; you're still my favorite dead boy." His ingrained manners nearly had his saying "thank you" to that statement, and Edwin thanked his lucky stars that he could hold his tongue because he was pretty sure no one in the room would have let him live it down if he said that.

"Now that all of that happened, can we discuss the reason why you asked us to come here, or was this a waste of time?" Edwin asked.

"I'm afraid I summoned you here for an actual case, not for pleasure, though that was a fun bonus," Thomas said. "Someone is killing cats in Port Townsend, and I want you to find out who they are."

+++

Thomas found them both chairs to sit on so they could start making this an official meeting. Edwin wanted to drag Charles somewhere private so they could have a conversation, but that appeared to be something that was happening later. In fact, the only time Charles had acknowledged his presence was when he pressed their shoulders together as Thomas got them somewhere to sit, but he never let Thomas out of his sight. If there was a truce between the two of them, Charles was not confident in it, or he didn't trust that Thomas would hold up his end of the bargain.

"Forgive me for how blunt this might sound," Edwin said carefully, and Thomas gestured for him to continue. "but that is a moderately common thing that disturbed members of the living do. It's documented as a sign to look out for when diagnosing severe mental issues. It seems like something the police should look into, not us."

"Your lack of candor is one of the things I appreciate the most about you, Edwin," Thomas replied. "That being said, you aren't wrong, and that is exactly what we tried to do. It required a little fancy footwork on the part of me and some very uncomfortable colored contacts, but I made the report. They have noted the cats but have found no leads, and because all the cats that have been killed so far are not beloved pets, no one has any urgency."

"Lack of urgency on the part of the police for anything that isn't a brutal murder that captures headlines is something that is beyond borders, apparently," Charles said as he leaned back in his chair a little bit. "We sometimes fall into that line of thinking, and we do have quotas to meet these days."

"May I start from the beginning?" Thomas asked, and both gestured for him to go ahead and give them all of the details. Edwin already had his notebook out and wrote as fast as he could. "Two weeks ago, the first body of one of my subjects appeared. It was on the edge of town, near the woods, and it looked like something tried to slowly tear them apart. It was gruesome. However, we are not apex predators, not here, so it wasn't unheard of that something might have killed one of us. However, there was something about the body that felt off to me. I am a being not entirely of this world so I know the signature of that energy. Again, in an attempt to maintain peace, I assured everyone that it was a tragedy but to be careful at night.

"Then another body appeared the next day in the exact same state," Thomas continued. "And then a third. I knew we were looking at a pattern by the time the fourth appeared. I told my subjects to come closer to the city and to stay in groups. If they weren't near the woods, then whatever was in the woods would have to reveal itself, and I thought that would be a deterrent. That was when I put the notice in with the police, and two days later, a fifth body appeared right in the middle of town. It scared the humans because young children saw it, but many assumed it was a car accident. Every single one of my subjects has been killed in the same way with the same lingering energy, and no matter how close I keep them, bodies keep appearing. When I found the fifteenth body, I remembered how nice of a note we ended on, Edwin, and thought to reach out. The worst-case situation was essentially what just happened or you not coming at all, but you're here now, and my subjects and I are being slaughtered. We need your help."

Edwin knew, on a logical level, that ghosts didn't get sick, but Thomas's descriptions turned his stomach. He glanced at Charles, who finally looked back at him and gestured with his head toward the door.

"Thomas, give us a moment to discuss?" Edwin asked.

"If that's what it takes," Thomas replied, trying to sound nonchalant, but now that Edwin knew what he was looking for, he could see that Thomas was incredibly nervous and on edge. Edwin also noticed that when their backs were to Thomas, Charles made sure that he was in the middle, so if Thomas were to try something, he would have to go through Charles.

"Mate, if you're going to ask about the fight, can we talk about it later?" Charles said before Edwin had even opened his mouth. "I know we agreed to let you do the talking, but it was obvious he wouldn't let that happen, so I improvised. You can yell at me for it later, but let's just figure out if we're going to do this or not first."

"I was about to scold you for that, and we will be addressing it later, but fine, if we must bypass it for now, we will," Edwin said, and Charles smiled for the first time since they had arrived in Port Townsend. "This sounds like some sort of ritualistic killing of some sort, and if Thomas is right and there is something linked to it, then it does sound like something we would look into. At least, the new version of the agency with Crystal and Niko since it might involve the living."

"I still don't like him, and I still don't trust him, but I hate the idea of sitting by and doing nothing even more," Charles replied. "Those cats don't deserve to die." Edwin nodded, and the two of them walked back over to Thomas.

"We'll have to confirm with the other members of the agency that they are on board, but we will take your case," Edwin replied.

"Thank you," Thomas said, and everything from the tone of his voice to the expression on his face looked genuine. "We don't bury our dead, and we don't photograph them either. As much as I am loathe to admit it, your best evidence will come once someone else dies, and judging by how quickly all of this is happening, someone else will. So I know you won't want to hear this from me, but I really think you should stay in town."

"We'll check in with home base, let Edwin get whatever research he thinks could be useful with what we know, and then we'll come back. Is that acceptable?" There was no hiding the sarcasm or the disdain in his voice, but it did seem to amuse Thomas enough that he was back to himself.

"Sounds like a deal, Charlie-boy," Thomas replied.

+++

Edwin had never seen Niko look more devasted than when she was told that cats in Port Townsend were being slaughtered. Crystal, on the other hand, looked like she would figure out a way to mirror-hop despite being a member of the living so she could get there and take care of this person herself. They both immediately agreed to take on the case.

"Besides, like you pointed out to him, if this is just a human asshole being an asshole, they usually escalate to people, and then it does become a case we would take on," Crystal pointed out, which Edwin didn't think of. He gathered every book he thought could help them and mirror-hopped with Charles back to Jenny's old building. It was still under construction, but the top floors were in good enough shape for them to work out of, and it was a known location for Thomas. In fact, a cat was waiting for them when they arrived. Charles rolled his eyes and opened a window so the cat could report they were back in town.

"All right, you can yell at me now; I know you want to," Charles said. There wasn't any furniture in the room, but there was the built-in counter that Charles made himself comfortable on.

"I do want to yell at you. You promised that you would allow me to do the talking when we confronted Thomas, and you did the opposite," Edwin said.

"'Thomas?' Are we on the first name basis with the Cat King, or is that something you can only get away with?" Charles asked. "Look, I had a feeling he was going to do something, and I needed to show him that he can't push either of us around. I also listen when you tell me things about tricksters, so while you were certain that the summon being addressed to only you was Thomas just messing with you, I had a feeling he would make it into something. He knows our dynamic, so I figured force was the only way forward."

"By getting into a supernatural pissing match with a creature whose powers we don't know the limits of?" Edwin asked, and Charles shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. Like Thomas couldn't have done something terrible to him when he fought back, and Edwin would have had to watch that while being unable to do anything. He was not so confident in whatever relationship he had with Thomas that he was sure Charles wasn't in danger. However, when he looked at his best friend, it was clear that Charles didn't have a single regret in the world, so there wasn't any point in going back and forth about this. "I couldn't help you," Edwin said softly, and Charles frowned. "He kept me silenced and frozen, so if he was going to hurt you, I couldn't help you. I need you safe."

Charles was across the room in what felt like two steps, and if they were alive, the force of his hug would have knocked the air out of Edwin's lungs. However, they weren't alive, but Charles was still the most real thing in the world to Edwin, and he could touch him without guilt. So he hugged Charles back tightly and tried not to think about how it felt not being able to move or speak. Charles pulled away and cupped Edwin's face in his hands like Edwin was something precious.

"Sorry for worrying you, mate," Charles whispered. Edwin nodded, suddenly breathless, and the moment between them broke. Thomas had given them a list of all the locations where cats had been found, so those were the first places they were going to check.

It was strange to walk around Port Townsend again. They could have mirror-hopped, but it was a little harder to do that when the locations they were trying to find were a little more vague, so walking it was. However, walking was something that they were very familiar with. They had a lot of time when they weren't working, so wandering London, or whatever city they decided to mirror hop to, for hours on end was not uncommon. This place still felt wrong in a way that was hard for Edwin to put into words. He thought he saw Esther in every shadow, and he swore he could feel that machine digging into him, draining him, and tearing him apart piece by piece.

When Charles took his hand, Edwin nearly jumped. This wasn't something that they usually did when they went on walks, but the presence of Charles's hand in his own was grounding and reminded Edwin that he was here, Esther was gone, and he didn't need to jump at shadows. Their arms brushed together nearly all the time now, but neither of them acknowledged the handholding.

They work in order, going from the scene of the first death all of the way to the most recent. Edwin has his nose to the ground, struggling to find anything that could point them in any direction, but if there was evidence, it wasn't the kind that lingered. Charles carefully marked each death on a map, but there didn't appear to be any pattern they could find. Crystal managed to find them a point and shoot a digital camera with which they could interact more or less. While they couldn't do anything with the technology itself, they could turn it on and off and hit the button to take the picture, so they were going to have to mirror-hop back to London to drop the camera off soon to see if Crystal or Niko saw something they didn't. They were at the scene of the most recent death, which took place in the middle of the road in town when Edwin suddenly stood up and looked around.

"What is it?" Charles asked.

"There is a chance us being out here will deter them from striking again," Edwin said. "While that is a good thing, it will stall our case, and we'll be unable to move forward."

"I don't think it's been deterred," Charles said. Edwin turned to ask what he meant when he saw three cats sprinting toward them as if their lives depended on it. Without thinking, Edwin reached over and squeezed Charles's hand tightly. The cats told them they needed to come with them immediately, and they raced across town. Once again, it was a densely populated area, so the cats followed Thomas's instructions to stay nearby. Thomas himself was kneeling down, and his shoulders were hunched over. When they arrived, he looked over his shoulder, and Edwin swore he saw tears in those golden eyes.

"Number sixteen," Thomas said, and his voice cracked. He stood up and stepped away, and it was more gruesome than he had described. The cat was black, and its limbs were contorted in a way that was not natural. There wasn't any possible way for a fall or a car accident to cause these breaks. The body did look like it was torn apart as if a predator got the animal, but there was something about it all that was too clean. Even disregarding the breaks in the limbs, the way the poor animal was torn apart looked like something trying to mimic an animal. This was not an animal, but something about it didn't look like it was done with human hands, either.

"Charles, could you hand me my copy of Compendium on Detecting Auras and Energy Volume 3 from your bag?" Edwin asked, and within moments, the book was in his hands. He could feel Charles lingering close to him, no doubt put on edge because of this and Thomas being nearby, and that really wasn't helping with his concentration. It was a little embarrassing that it took him two tries to get the spell right, and the aura above the cat glowed gray, like smoke.

"What does that mean?" Thomas asked when Edwin hadn't said anything for a moment.

"It means everyone was right and no one was right. Humans aren't doing this, but neither is something supernatural or something from the spirit realm. However, the mixing of the two seems to indicate that it's, well, some sort of grey area, as if whatever is doing this isn't any of the above," Edwin explained. "And that is just my best guess because grey is not even listed as a possibility in terms of a color that could appear."

"How can something be neither living, dead, or spiritual, but still be able to even interact with something in this world?" Charles asked. Edwin didn't have an answer to that question, and the more he looked at the poor body of the cat, the more dread he felt that something was very wrong.

+++

When Edwin suggests they split up and search the immediate area a little, he thinks Charles will have a very loud argument. However, since Edwin said immediate vicinity, that seemed to be enough to placate him. Edwin also didn't know what to even look for, and it was best to have two sets of eyes looking for everything. There was a chance that someone would see something he or Charles overlooked. Edwin was also not surprised when he was just out of hearing range; Thomas joined him.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Edwin said.

"Thank you, but we prepared for this. We knew that you likely wouldn't solve this before someone else died, but that doesn't mean I'm pleased about it," Thomas replied. "I know you want to ask about what happened the other day, but you think that's unprofessional considering you're on the scene of a case." That was true, and he wanted to know, but Edwin wasn't about to admit that out loud. Thomas took his silence for the admittance that it was and soldiered on. "He's much more interesting than I expected. I never got to have any fun with him the last time you were here, so we had some fun. And you don't need to worry about breaking my rules; the debt was already paid when he managed to best me, even if for only a moment."

"While I cannot comprehend why it had to involve violence, what I am angry about were the two spells you put on me." Edwin stopped and looked Thomas directly in the eye. "If you use a spell like that on me again, I will not hesitate to retaliate."

"I would have spirited him away like I did with you, but I didn't think you'd appreciate that," Thomas replied. "And fine, no more spells now; both of the Dead Boy Detectives have my attention for very different reasons." Edwin didn't like the sound of that, but Thomas walked away without another word. For a moment, he thought that Thomas would try to have a conversation with Charles, but instead, he stopped and spoke to the cats. The sun was beginning to come up, and people around town were waking up to start their day. Before long, anything that remained would be lost.

"Any thoughts?" Charles asked as he joined Edwin. He had the camera in hand, so they would have to make another trip to London so Crystal and Niko could take the pictures and put them onto the computer. It still amazed him how simple it was for people to take photos these days.

"If there is something here, it's very well hidden," Edwin replied. Thomas and the other cats had removed the body after being told there wasn't any point in leaving it out any longer. They returned to the apartment to mirror hop back to London since it was still a decent hour there, and they could get some work done. Edwin was a little surprised that Charles didn't grill him about what Thomas had spoken to him about, but it sounded like whatever was going on between them was settled, so maybe the animosity was over.

Crystal and Niko were finishing a late lunch when they arrived in London. Charles handed Crystal the camera but forewarned her that it wouldn't be fun to look at. He was right; the pictures were somehow even worse than seeing them in person. Niko looked particularly distressed, and Edwin reached out to hold her hand. They were all huddled around the desk, Crystal in the chair and the rest standing around her. Edwin wasn't pleased to give up his place, but she needed the desk. Also, they had already argued about this exact situation two and a half weeks ago, and he was pretty sure he lost.

"Let's pull all of the places where the cats have died so we can see them all side by side," Crystal said. "We're missing something, and it must be so obvious that we aren't seeing it."

"They were all found at night, but that could just mean that the cover of darkness makes it a little easier to hide. Likely not entirely intentional as it is convenient," Edwin said as he thought out loud.

"All of the locations are geologically different, at least a little," Charles said. "Deaths number two and five took place near the edge of the woods, but deaths three and seven were in the middle of a residential area, with the most recent ones happening in town. So it's not the location."

"Thomas said all of the cats that have died have been strays?" Crystal asked, and Edwin nodded. "That's something they have in common, but that could be like the night thing. Cats that are kept as pets are usually indoors, while cats that are strays are outdoors. Whatever and whoever is doing this isn't so desperate that they are willing to break into homes to kill pets." That was something, but it wasn't much to go on. They continued eliminating various aspects of the crime [all cats were different breeds, ages, and genders, so there isn't a specific type]. Still, the only things that linked the cats were the specific way they died and the fact that they were dying.

"Oh, that's nice," Niko said after several hours of looking at pictures, including ones of a dead cat. She seemed to realize everyone looked at her strangely, but she pointed to the images. "People have been trying to get locals to leave out food and water for strays for a long time now, so they are relatively healthy after they are TNR'ed. It looks like there are food or water bowls nearby where the cats were found." Everyone leaned in to look at the pictures simultaneously, which Edwin thought was ridiculous. They nearly knocked their heads into each other, but Niko was right. It looked like neighbors and locals were leaving out food and water.

"When is something not of the living, dead, or spiritual," Edwin whispered to himself. The bowls were a link, but how could food bowls be dangerous? Niko squeezed his hand and tossed her white hair over her shoulder, and it dawned on him. "A venom or a fungus enhanced by supernatural forces," Edwin said, and Charles seemed to be putting the pieces together and went to look for a book. "A fungus or venom from the human world would read as something from the living, but the enhancement or mutation of a spiritual or magic nature would change it just enough to make of neither world."

"Edwin, mate, you have too many books on deadly venom for someone already dead," Charles said as he dropped three large books on the desk. "I'll go get the ones on the fungi, then send us on a wild goose chase to find the book. You'll need to figure out what's going on."

+++

It took far longer than Edwin wanted to admit to figure all of this out, but the possibilities were endless. Charles went back to see if the bowl from the original latest attack was still there, but he couldn't find it, no matter how hard he looked. He told Thomas that all cats should avoid food and drink left outside by anyone. Charles said that Thomas really did not like that but seemed to agree for now. They went back and forth a few times, but ever since Charles told the cats to stop eating the food left out for strays, there hadn't been any other attacks. So it seemed they had found the weapon, and it came in the form of charity. There was something very sick about essentially poisoning food left out for animals without homes to return to.

Thomas managed to get them a bowl left outside after two days and handed it over like he was holding a time bomb. He didn't dare bring it through the mirror, so he and Charles had to test it in the back room of Jenny's old shop. A small amount of water on a piece of raw meat caused the bone to break horrifically and the skin to try and tear itself apart. He took as small of a sample as needed to the office and narrowed it down to snake venom. It was Crystal who ended up suggesting something as normal as a rattlesnake instead of some exotic creature that existed in far corners of the world because it would be easier to procure. She was right, and through a little trial and error, Edwin could replicate the venom, spell, and what turned out to be a potion combination to get as similar of a result as they were ever going to get.

Crystal was having trouble getting a reading on the bowl and told them that it felt like someone had purposely blocked her out. So it was someone capable of keeping a psychic out if they so chose, and there wasn't anything good about that.

"So you know how my subjects are dying and how to avoid it, but no idea who is doing it," Thomas said. It was one of the rare moments that Edwin and Charles weren't in the same room. Charles was over at Tragic Mike's, trying to see if anyone had bought the ingredients needed to mutate the venom, but Edwin felt that it was best to update their client.

"Precisely," Edwin said. I know this isn't the answer you wanted, but we know how to keep your people safe until we can figure this out. We need more of those bowls so Crystal can get a reading on it, so please have the cats keep an eye out for another bowl and get it to us as quickly as possible. Perhaps if we get the bowl to Crystal sooner, she could see this person's face."

"Very well," Thomas said with a dramatic sigh. "I must say I am disappointed not to see your other half."

"Have a good night, Thomas. I will get back to you on your case," Edwin replied without indulging him in that question. Thomas's laughter followed him outside the warehouse as he looked for a mirror that would get him close to Tragic Mike's. However, Edwin knew something wasn't right when the mirror he used to get closer to the warehouse was shattered. It was fine just a little while ago; now, his easiest means of escape was gone. Edwin could feel someone watching him, and it was at this moment that he truly regretted every single time he told Charles he didn't need to learn to defend himself.

The person seemed to appear out of the shadows, and before Edwin could react, there was an iron chain wrapped around his neck. It was pulled tight, but he was already dead; he didn't need to breathe. The iron burned, and he struggled to get away, but whoever this was, they were like a solid wall behind him. Edwin was suddenly reminded of the night Jenny was attacked and how someone managed to nearly cave Charles's skull in.

"Tell His Majesty that I've made my point, and his subjects are safe," the person said into Edwin's ear. The words seemed to echo throughout his entire skull and reminded him, in some ways, of what Thomas did the first few times they met, but the effect was much worse. He was a ghost; he couldn't really pass out, but the world around him started to go dark, and the last thing Edwin remembered was the vague impression of the pavement.

+++

Someone was loudly calling his name, and Edwin very much wanted them to stop. His neck was aching, and it reminded him far too much of hell. He wasn't back there, though; he couldn't be because they got out and were supposed to be safe. Someone was still saying his name, and they said something about Charles. Edwin's vision began to clear, and he realized he was on the ground and the person saying his name was Thomas. He looked worried, like the night they had found the dead cat, and Edwin wondered if they had found another one.

"There you are," Thomas said gently. Edwin was about to ask what happened when Charles came sprinting down the road like the spider from hell was at his heels. He dropped to his knees in front of Edwin and cupped his face.

"Are you all right? Are you okay?" Charles whispered, and Edwin could feel how badly his hands were shaking.

"Someone attacked him," Thomas said. "A cat came and got me, but they were already gone when I arrived."

"The night Jenny was attacked," Edwin replied, his voice a little harsh from the iron chain. Charles looked confused, and then his eyes widened.

"You think they're connected?" he asked.

"They said, 'Tell His Majesty that I've made my point, and his subjects are safe,'" Edwin said, but he was unsure if he should say this or not. However, he also didn't know if Thomas could tell if someone was lying, and Charles was still touching him, so he felt like he was grounded enough. "Thomas, I'm not entirely sure this was ever about you." He hadn't seen that expression on Thomas's face before, but he looked furious. "Someone attacked Jenny in London, and now someone has attacked you, essentially. Someone appears to be going after our allies."

"I see," Thomas said. "So it was my connection to the two of you that led to the killing of nearly twenty of my subjects. Is that what I'm understanding?"

"Mate, it's just a theory we have--" Charles started.

"Do not call me that as if we are friends," Thomas snapped. "So the Dead Boy Detectives made someone mad and they decided to take it out on my cats to, what? Prove a point?" He stood up and looked down at them with more contempt than Edwin had ever seen in him. "It would be best if you both left Port Townsend and did not return." Edwin wanted to say something, and his first instinct was to apologize, but he couldn't find the right words. Charles dropped his hands to the ground as Thomas turned and walked away, with all of the cats following close behind.

The fear was all too familiar; it reminded Charles of when Edwin got pulled back into hell or when he could hear his best friend screaming in pain in Esther's home, and some iron was preventing him from helping. Charles thought he was doing a decent job of mitigating that fear and keeping all of them safe; that was what he wanted to do now that Niko was back, but he made a mistake. When the cats told him something was wrong with Edwin and he needed to come right now, but there wasn't a mirror nearby, Charles didn't think he'd ever run faster in his life.

The iron burns around Edwin's neck were black and red and angry-looking, so it was clear someone had attacked him. Thomas, because apparently they were calling the Cat King by a human name, was nearby trying to wake Edwin up when Charles arrived. Once Edwin mentioned someone trying to bash his skull in when Jenny was attacked, Charles felt like he was in that freezing cold lake again. He had seen Thomas once without Edwin there, and the meeting went about as well as it could have. He got right into Charles's personal bubble and made some ridiculous comments about how he needed to keep an eye on Edwin, or he might snatch him up. Charles might have laughed in his face.

Now, he looked at them like he might do something to make them regret ever stepping foot in Port Townsend. Charles didn't think Thomas's mutual interest in either of them would be enough to save their asses if he decided to turn his wrath on them. So Charles felt fortunate when Thomas walked away with a clear threat that it would be in their best interest not to return anytime soon. Once all the cats were gone, Charles leaned forward and pressed his forehead to Edwin's. They were still on the ground and needed to find a mirror, but he needed a moment.

"I'm okay," Edwin whispered because it was like they could read each other's minds sometimes.

"What happened?" Charles asked when he felt like he was steady enough that he wouldn't shake when he helped Edwin to his feet. As much as he didn't want to, this was a conversation they needed to have while walking because they left some things back at the apartment, and Charles didn't know if they had any grace period to get the hell out of town.

"After I provided an update to Thomas, I went to the mirror to join you, but it was broken," Edwin explained as they hurried along the road and looked for a mirror large enough to travel through. "Then, much like the attack on you, someone came out of nowhere. They put an iron chain around my neck and pulled like they were trying to strangle me. He passed along a message that 'his point had been made' and that he would stop killing the cats. Then I lost consciousness, though I'm afraid I don't know for how long; it seemed brief."

"'His point?' What does that even mean?" Charles nearly fist-pumped when they found a mirror large enough to get them back to the apartment, and they packed everything they had left behind as fast as possible. A cat was sitting on the windowsill, watching them, and it was a pretty clear warning.

"I suppose that he has the ability to put us in situations where we are separated because he has done it twice, and both times, he managed to attack us," Edwin said as he handed Charles the last book. They both turned and looked at the cat watching them; it hissed, so it was time to go. It was the middle of the night when they landed back in London, and the girls were both asleep, so it was just the two of them.

"Guess this means I'm not letting you out of my sight, mate," Charles said, trying to make it sound light. He tried to inject just a little bit of something into this, but the words didn't sound true even to himself.

"The feeling is very much mutual," Edwin muttered as he looked at their wall of open and closed cases. Charles walked over and resisted the urge to wrap himself around Edwin and never let go. Instead, he just stood close so their shoulders were touching. Edwin took the file for the case in Port Townsend and put it in the same place they were keeping the file on Jenny's assault. Nothing definitively linked the two of them, but Charles could only assume that Edwin had the same bad feeling that he did.

Of course, there was only so much they could have done to clean up the last part of this case, but Charles didn't think either of them had it in them. The burns on Edwin's neck still looked horrific, but when Charles tried to do something about it, Edwin all but smacked his hand away, so it was clear that treating the burns was not on the to-do list.

"Let's go for a walk," Charles said.

"Yes, that might be a good idea," Edwin replied. Neither of them said anything for a while, but Charles didn't know what to say. For once, he really didn't know how to fill this silence and make it less oppressive, but nothing came to him. "You were right; we shouldn't have taken that case."

"Edwin, we both know that's complete bollocks," Charles replied. "If we're right about the intent, then we were always supposed to be there. They would have found another way to get us there if we hadn't gone."

"We went there with the intention of keeping an ally, and we left with someone else extremely unhappy with us," Edwin said, sighing heavily. "We need to find proof that these are connected because we'll never solve this until we find some evidence." Charles agrees with him, but considering both of the times this person has attacked them, provided they are the same person, they have done so in a way that their identity is hidden and appears out of nowhere. They weren't leaving evidence. Charles was a bit lost in his head, and he didn't notice that Edwin had stopped walking until he was a few steps ahead. He turned around, but Edwin looked worried. "And we can't even trust any evidence found because it could be something they want to be found."

Charles could see that Edwin was in danger of spiraling because this was pretty much both of their worst nightmares. They already felt like Death was lurking out there in the shadows, and they were always running and looking over their shoulder for her. Now, the idea that they had made someone out there so angry that they were lurking out there, waiting for them to be alone so they could hurt them? Charles wasn't going to lie to his best friend, to his other half, and tell him that it would be okay. He was dead; he'd seen too much in the last thirty years to think that, but when he pulled Edwin into a tight hug, he did make a promise he planned on keeping.

"We'll stay together, no one goes anywhere alone, and we'll keep each other safe."

+++

Charles lets himself get a little lost in the cases they solve over the next couple of weeks. He sees Edwin writing a letter to Thomas when he thinks Charles isn't looking, perhaps trying to plead their case that this wasn't their fault and apologizing, but he doesn't expect it to work. Charles knew that if Edwin got hurt because of someone else, he wouldn't ever forgive them either, and Thomas lost sixteen of his subjects. It was unclear to him just how close all of the cats were, but he imagined it was close enough to family that it hurt when they all died. Thomas was the King, therefore, the protector, and he was the one who solidified the link between the Dead Boy Detectives and the cats. He knew Edwin was upset about the whole thing and didn't find it logical, but Charles had never related to Thomas more.

He thought they were getting a break when the next couple of cases went well, but Charles should have known better that when the hits come, they tend to keep coming. So he wasn't entirely surprised when Niko offhandedly mentioned that Jenny had asked them to come by when they could talk about something, but she didn't know what. Charles had a very bad feeling; he knew what would happen, but he kept his mouth shut. He mirror-hopped with Edwin over to the store, and she jumped when she saw them.

"Jesus fuck, figure out a way to knock," she snapped, but her hands were shaking a little.

"I'm sure we can figure something out. Is there something we can help you with?" Edwin asked.

"Yeah, I'd say there is something you can do for me, and that's keeping away from me." Jenny was clearly struggling to keep her voice steady, but Charles could hear it. Her hands clenched so tightly at her side that the knuckles were turning white. "You two helped bring in that witch that blew up my livelihood, and now the girls are saying you could be the reason those guys attacked me? It's fucked up that I had to hear that from Crystal and not from you two. You owe me that much, all things considered."

"You're right," Charles said, putting his hands up in surrender even though he doubted there was very little they could do to placate Jenny right now. "The minute we thought there was more to it than just a random attack, we should have told you because you're the victim and our friend. I promise we're sorry about that. Is there anything we can do to help fix it?" Jenny stared at the two of them for what felt like a long time before she sighed heavily.

"Look, all of this has been a lot, and I just need some normalcy in my life. It seems like when I let you guys anywhere near me, you bring something abnormal. So I need some time to settle here before I can even think about all of this," she replied. "Please tell Crystal and Niko that if they want to see me, it has to be in my apartment after hours, and they have to use the side door to make sure no one sees them."

"Very well," Edwin said slowly. "Please keep yourself safe and do not hesitate to contact us if you need us." She nodded and walked back into the store without looking back at them. There was no reason to linger, and they were back in the office with the girls in moments. They both asked how it went, and Charles had to explain what Jenny had said to both of them.

"I can understand craving a little normalcy and stability after all of this," was all Crystal said about the subject. Niko just looked very sad while Edwin was staring at the case board as if it could somehow reveal all of its secrets if he just looked hard enough.

"All right, where were we?" Charles asked as he tried to lighten up the mood. It seemed to shake everyone out of their state, and they could focus on the cases in front of them. Despite more pressing cases, they had a few from the Night Nurse sitting at the top of the pile. The Night Nurse and her cases always took priority, no matter how wrong it felt. They hadn't seen her in a week or two, which meant it was only a matter of time before she turned up, and handing her large stacks of solved cases always seemed to be the best move for all involved.

+++

Charles liked to think he had a better handle on his temper these days. He had learned to talk about things with people so he wouldn't fly off the bloody handle so many times. However, it turned out that he was deluding himself because small things were still out there, which really set him off. Anyone who tried to poke at Edwin using hell, someone trying to hurt Crystal by invoking her parents, or someone trying to drag Niko back into oblivion by reminding her that she was so close to reuniting with her dad (she wasn't, not technically since she wasn't in the afterlife, and Niko knew that, but you can't help how you react to things). Charles had his own little list of things, but nothing set him off faster than the word "useful" coming out of the Night Nurse's mouth.

The mere idea of how fragile this little truce between the Lost and Found Department and the Dead Boy Detectives was and how it made Edwin look like he wanted to throw up made Charles practically see red. However, as always, she could see right through him and looked at him like one would look at a child throwing a temper tantrum, which is likely what she saw Edwin and Charles as mere children refusing to pick up their spiritual balls and go home.

"You can glare and huff at me all you want, Charles Rowland, but that won't change the terms of this arrangement," she said. "Stay useful, and you get to stay here."

"Perhaps we could have a clear definition of what 'useful' actually is?" Edwin asked.

"I'll file the necessary paperwork, but the department is very busy, so I don't expect a timely response. These things usually take months or years." With that, she was gone, with another small pile of cases for them to solve. Charles wanted to scream, but Edwin's hand on his arm brought him back to reality. He looked fond, maybe even amused, which was one of the most bewildering reactions he could have had to think of the entire thing.

"What's so funny?" Charles asked, and his voice was a little shorter than he had intended, but he was angry now. Edwin pulled him over to their couch, a new one purchased by Crystal, and sat them down together. Charles absolutely did not notice that they were sitting right next to each other with no space between them, and his brain was playing tricks on him when he swore that he could feel the subtle heat coming off of Edwin. Charles would not think about that; instead, he focused on Edwin taking one of his hands and holding it in both hands.

"You can't fight everything that wants to hurt me," Edwin said. Usually, Charles would have made some smartass retort, but there was something in the tone of Edwin's voice and the way he was holding his hand that made the words get stuck in his throat. "Or anything that tries to hurt the girls too. And that's okay, we're going to be okay. Whether this deal with the Lost and Found Department goes away or not, we will be okay because I won't let anything separate us, and I know you'll do the same. So you have to stop trying to pick a fight with the Night Nurse every time she reminds us that we have to be useful. I can handle it because we can handle it. I have absolute faith in both of us."

Charles really didn't know what to say to that. He wanted to argue that Edwin was wrong; he was supposed to protect all of them, and if he couldn't do that much, then what was he good for? But he knew how that conversation would go, and it was an argument that Charles knew he wouldn't win. So he did the only thing he could think of doing at that moment: throwing himself at Edwin and hanging on for dear life. This was far from the only hug like this they had shared; ever since they found out about the deal and clung to each other, Edwin had not only seemed more open to hugs but the kind of hugs that would have bruised their ribs if they were still alive.

"Thanks, Edwin," Charles said into his neck. He could have sworn that he felt Edwin shake in his arms, but that must have been his mind playing tricks on him. Charles held on for a long time, and Edwin let him.

Charles tried not to think about hell whenever possible. It made him angry that Edwin had gone back there for any reason, that Edwin had been there for any moment at all. Charles hated that he hit the bell and hurt everyone, even though he should have read the notes and saw that it would have. He hated that fucking spider and the sound Edwin made when it took him away. Charles wasn't ever getting the sight of that thing tearing the body of his best friend apart out of his head for the rest of his afterlife.

Edwin's confession was something they hadn't really talked about that much. He had assured Edwin that nothing would change, and Charles very much meant that. At the time, he thought nothing would change, but then they did. Now Edwin touched him all the time, and it was distracting and confusing, as well as the best thing that had ever happened to him. He never wanted to go back to the days when he had to practically beg for any sort of affection from Edwin. At the same time, this new sort of affection was almost blinding, given how lovely it was and how much Charles was unsure how to handle it.

So Edwin seemed more at ease with himself, and they didn't talk about hell. That was the reality that Charles was living in right now, and the thought of doing anything else made him want to jump into his backpack and hide for days. He knew they needed to talk about it, but between their caseload and all of the weird things happening, it seemed like the wrong time, and Charles knew this was an important conversation to have. He also needed to figure out what he would say in this conversation.

It was very early in the morning, and the girls looked like they would have murdered them both if they weren't already dead. That was a common enough expression on Crystal's face, but it was rather impressive to see Niko looking that homicidal. Edwin sighed heavily and dug into his desk, presenting two energy drinks he had stolen from the store the night before. They were warm, but a peace offering that they had brought the two of them in so early. Crystal looked like she didn't trust this, so she took the can and handed it to Niko.

"There is something strange going on that people have been mentioning offhandedly, but no one has brought it up as an official case yet," Edwin said. "They said something about ghosts being in the wrong place, and those that are tethered to locations are suddenly moved somewhere else."

"What happens after that?" Crystal asked.

"Nothing, as far as anyone can tell. They move, and then Death comes to pick them up, and they move on. It just takes a little longer because they aren't where they're supposed to be," Edwin replied.

"Isn't that breaking ghost rules?" Niko asked, and Charles shrugged.

"We call them 'rules,' but we don't know anything definitively." He explained. The whole thing was still weird, and they would have to keep an eye on it. Ghosts that are tethered to locations are often volatile, and having some random, angry ghost suddenly moving locations is asking for trouble. They were working on another case when Niko's phone rang. She frowned when she looked at it and took the call in the hallway. Charles could hear her speaking softly in Japanese. The time between Niko being gone and coming back was hard, mostly because her mom thought she was dead. It took some fancy footwork to reveal that she'd been in a hospital in another state with no identification and was unconscious. It seemed to work, but it made things even harder with her mom.

Niko walked back into the office and was white as if she were about to faint. Charles was the closest to her, and he nearly tripped over his own feet, getting over to her and helping her to the couch. She was shaking in his arms, and he could already see tears in her eyes.

"Niko, what happened?" Crystal asked.

"My mom was in a car accident. She is in the hospital with some pretty bad injuries," she whispered. Charles wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and when he looked up at Edwin and Crystal, they looked at each other and looked like they were ready for battle.

"Okay, we need to get you to Japan as fast as possible," Crystal said as she knelt before Niko. "Let's go back home, and I'll break the spending limit on my parent's credit card so we can get there immediately."

"We can travel with you or meet you there," Edwin said. Niko nodded without making a choice, but Crystal was already out the door and on the phone with someone about ordering tickets. Once Niko was on her feet, Edwin pulled her into one of those bone-crushing hugs that always made Charles feel better. "Whatever you need, all you need to do is ask," he whispered into her hair. She nodded and pulled away like she was about to leave but stopped.

"If you don't mind, could you go sit with her? So she's not alone?" Niko asked.

This was always the risk when they decided to become friends with the living. In many ways, it was fleeting, and both Charles and Edwin knew that these friendships, no matter how meaningful, were finite and probably even shorter than the girls wanted to admit. The truth was they would get older and have their own lives, get partners, and have kids, while he and Edwin stayed just as they were. One night, when they were discussing it not long after Port Townsend, Edwin likened it to a twisted version of Peter Pan, and the girls were the Darling family who couldn't stay in Neverland and stay kids.

However, Charles knew, and he knew Edwin agreed, that these friendships were worth it when you met someone like Niko Sasaki. In many ways, Charles credited her for bringing Edwin out of his shell, accomplishing something he'd been attempting to do for decades in mere weeks. Crystal once said that she was "too pure for this world," and Charles was inclined to agree, even if her taste in manga was anything but pure. There was something so pure and so good about Niko that made you want to do anything for her.

So when she stood there and asked them to sit with her mother in an intensive care unit in a hospital, where people died all the time and Death would be going in and out of the building at lightning speed, neither of them hesitated to say, "Yes." The tiny smile she gave them as she closed the door seemed to indicate that she hadn't thought about the ramifications of putting two dead boys running from Death in a hospital, but she asked them to sit with her mother, and this was Niko, so they were going to do it.

+++

Niko told them her mother's name and what hospital she was in, but that was about it. She needed to focus on getting to Japan as quickly as possible, and international travel was not exactly instantaneous for the living. Charles liked to think he and Edwin were halfway to smart between them, so they could find her if pointed in the right direction. The problem was that they did not want to spend a second longer in the hospital than necessary because Death was going to be everywhere. They hadn't gone anywhere near a hospital, even for cases for this exact reason, yet here they were.

This was such a monumentally bad idea.

"Charles," Edwin's voice cut through his anxiety and brought Charles back to reality. "We're going to be okay."

"I feel like you've been saying that to me a lot lately," he replied.

"Consider it me paying you back for the many, many hits you've taken for me over the year," Edwin said. Charles was about to argue that he was supposed to be the one taking the hits, but Edwin just shut that entire line of thought down with a look. He knew when there wasn't any point in pursuing a line of thought with Edwin, so Charles dropped it. They made their way through the mirror to Tokyo. The city was busy, and they were fairly close to the hospital, but there was something that seemed a little off. Unlike the states, but more like Europe, there didn't appear to be that many people who were driving cars, yet Niko's mom was in a car accident.

Fortunately for the two of them, if anyone in the city could see them, their fashion choices didn't seem that different from teenagers their own age who seemed to be experimenting with their own looks. Charles didn't like to admit that he liked clothes because his father would have beaten him, but seeing men, women, and everyone else expressing themselves through clothing was something he envied the living for. It took a little time for them to finally find the hospital because Tokyo was absolutely massive, and they both stared at it.

"Any ideas?" Charles asked. "I know she asked us to sit with her, but that is a terrible idea. We can check on her, but we need to find her and find out where she is in that massive place."

"There is likely a bathroom with a mirror we could travel through once we know what room she is in. We can just jump back and forth, but we need somewhere to jump back to. Somewhere close, so it's easier, so we can stay close just in case." Edwin said as he looked around. There was a large parking structure that looked separate from the rest of the hospital. If Death was running around, she had no reason to enter a parking lot. It took some time, but they found a storage closet that wasn't insanely small where they could sit comfortably. Charles dug into his backpack and pulled out one of the extra mirrors they carried around, just in case. It wasn't massive; they would have to practically crawl, but it was enough.

Once they had a safe place to jump to if they needed to run, it was time to face the hospital. Charles wasn't sure if he reached for Edwin's hand or if it was the other way around, but by some unspoken conversation, they threaded their fingers together and held on tight. Was it smart to go into the hospital while still holding hands? Probably. Did it make it a little harder for them to move? Yes. Was Charles going to let go anytime soon? Absolutely not. The problem with hospitals was the same one they had with police stations; there were people who had near-death experiences all over who could see them. Charles did his best not to make eye contact with anyone.

They had to jump back to their storage closet three times to avoid Death before they even went to the department where they thought Niko's mother could be. From there, it took a lot of ducking in and out of corners to find the right room, and Charles didn't think he'd ever been so glad to see someone in a hospital with a private room. Immediately, he could see the family resemblance even through all the bruising. It looked like her arm and leg were broken; she was sleeping deeply, and she was covered in cuts and bruises that he could only guess were from broken glass.

There didn't appear to be any paper charts around so they couldn't get more information about what had happened, so they were essentially useless. The intensive care unit was filled with people who were hurt or close to death, and Charles kept an eye out for that familiar blue or red light. The first time the room opened the door, they scrambled into the bathroom, through the mirror, and into their little closet with absolutely zero elegance. Somehow, Charles fell on his back, and Edwin was basically on top of him, which was a sensation that Charles didn't think he would enjoy so much. It was over before it started, and they settled into their little hiding hole until they needed to jump again. They could have returned to the office, but that felt like they weren't doing what Niko asked.

"Surely this is just a coincidence, right?" Charles said. "Just because the thing with Jenny and the Cat King happened, this can't be related. It's got to be a coincidence or terrible luck, right?" He wasn't sure who he was trying to convince, but considering the fact that Edwin didn't reply, he probably didn't believe a word Charles was saying. They were sitting side by side without any space between them, and Charles gave in to his impulse to rest his cheek on Edwin's shoulder. They would get up and check on Niko's mom again in a little while, but right now, it seemed like neither of them were inclined to move.

+++

Charles lost count of how many times they mirror-hopped between Niko's mother's room and their little storage closet, but it was enough that he was beginning to feel like he wasn't really in either place. When it seemed like they would need to take an extended break, the next time they jumped through, Niko and Crystal were both there. Niko immediately threw her arms around both of them and held them tightly.

"I didn't even think about how dangerous it was asking you two to be in a hospital where people are constantly dying; why didn't you say anything?" she asked.

"Because you asked us to look over her," Edwin replied like that was the obvious answer because it was. Niko asked, and they were going to do it. They still would have done it if she had turned around a minute later and taken the request back because she realized what she was asking. Niko frowned like she would argue that, but Charles decided to linger on this, which wouldn't do them any good. It was like Edwin trying to yell at him for going down to hell to bring Edwin back; it would always happen, and arguing about it wouldn't change anything.

"We couldn't access any sort of medical charts, so we don't know anything or if anything has changed," Charles said. That seemed to be the thing that brought Niko back to the present as she looked at her mother.

"It's not as bad as it could be, but it's also not good," she said softly. "The doctors don't know much about the accident, just that she wasn't driving, and the driver was pronounced dead on arrival. We don't have cars, so I can only guess Mom was in a taxi. But we don't know."

"I tried to read her, but anything about the accident is blurry," Crystal said. Charles glanced at Edwin and saw that his friend was having a hard time because they were both thinking the same thing; could this be another attack against someone connected to them? All Charles could think about was the way Thomas's and Jenny's faces looked when they realized that the terrible things happening to them were linked to them.

"How can we help, Niko?" Edwin asked softly. This was a way of seeing if Niko wanted them to look into this or if they would have to do it on their own without telling her right now.

"I want to know what happened, but I don't think I can help, and I don't want to be alone," Niko said quietly.

"I'll stay," Crystal said without missing a beat. "I'm sure those two can figure it out without us. They were doing it long before we came along." The unspoken 'and will continue to do it long after we're gone' hung in the room, but Charles wasn't about to draw attention to it.

"Anything you need," he said, and Edwin nodded. They hugged Niko tightly, and if she clung to them a little tighter, that was fine. She needed someone to hold her, and they were also happy to provide that service. It was still unsafe to stay in the hospital, so they mirror-hopped out of the room and back into their little closet. Charles packed up the extra "travel mirror," as he started referring to it, and they made their way out into the city. They didn't know their way around and had mirror-hopped a lot in the last day or so, so they took public transportation when possible and walked.

"Any ideas who could be doing this?" Charles asked as they rode one of the trains. It was packed, so they had stuffed themselves into a corner, but even then, they would occasionally phase through a person. However, once it kept happening and people got the chill that came from phasing through them, they started to avoid that corner of the car, thinking maybe a vent was broken.

"Ever since that man spoke to me in Port Townsend, I've been going through old case files and the mail, but I haven't found a single thing that could point us in any direction. Whoever this person is, their connection to us is either buried in a case file that I'm unable to find, or they are connected to someone we have interacted with."

"And if that's the case, literally any case we have solved could be a possibility, and it's not like we can ask anyone follow-up questions," Charles finished, and Edwin hummed in agreement. "I don't think I've ever wanted a car accident to just be a car accident more."

"Indeed." It took a couple of tries to find the right police department that had the file on the accident. It was the middle of the night, and thankfully, Edwin knew just enough Japanese to get through the computer. Charles kept a lookout as he copied down the incident report so they would not have to spend any more time around police than they needed to. Once they had all the information needed, it was easy to find a restaurant that was closed for the night where they could sit down and talk quietly.

The report detailed that it was a two-car accident that happened at a four-way stop. One of the cars ran a red light and smashed into the other. From the report, it looked like the car Niko's mother was in had the right of way, and the other car hit them. However, the witnesses' statements about which car has the right of way were inconclusive. Edwin wasn't able to get copies of the pictures right now, but the description of the car detailed that if Niko's mother had been sitting behind the driver instead of behind the passenger side, she probably wouldn't have made it. It wasn't just the taxi driver who passed away; it was the other driver as well, with Niko's mother being the sole survivor of the crash. Several other cars were almost involved, a few fender benders here and there, but nothing that really contributed to the injuries.

If there was CCTV footage of the crash, they hadn't had a chance to watch it, but they did have the address of the crash, and that was somewhere to start. Charles didn't think they would get lucky enough that one of the drivers would be hanging around and could help them, but there was a chance. The four-way stop was fairly busy by the time they got there, but there didn't appear to be any evidence of lingering ghosts that they could talk to, get some information from, and then help them move on. Charles was looking at the road itself, trying to see if there was anything that could have caused the accident when Edwin called him over to a small corner shop.

"I believe that camera could have captured the accident," he said. This was one of those times when Crystal's presence would have helped a lot, but the corner shop was on a skeleton crew for the night shift, and it was fairly easy to phase into the back office and use the computer to look through the CCTV. The camera did catch the accident, and Charles couldn't hide his wince when the two cars smashed into each other. As the report detailed, no other cars were involved besides just running into each other to avoid the accident, and pedestrians immediately ran over to see if they could help. However, something about the pedestrians didn't sit right with him, but Charles couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"Charles," Edwin said, "the witness statements were inconclusive, with people reporting that both cars had the right of way, correct?"

"That's what you copied down, mate, yep," Charles replied.

"Look at the traffic light." Edwin pointed at the light and started the footage again. The light changed moments before the accident, so both directions were green. Charles closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

"They were both green," he said,

"They were both green," Edwin repeated. "There is the chance that there was some sort of glitch, but considering everything that has been happening, I believe we should work under the assumption that this was intentional. If nothing else, I believe overreacting is the best course of action rather than assuming nothing is wrong." Charles agreed with that entire statement, but something about this footage was still bothering him.

"Switch seats with me," Charles said as he sat down and watched the footage play again. Edwin was close, watching over his shoulder, because he knew that Charles wouldn't have sat down like this if he didn't have a hunch of his own. It wasn't the crash that was bothering him; there was something in the crowd that was just off enough that he noticed. Like it was a bad guy pretending to be a good guy and helping someone in an accident, but Charles could see through them. It took a little while, but he finally saw it.

"There," Charles said, and he used his finger to point to one of the people running up to the crash. "This guy right here never turns his back to the camera, and he moves in a way that is weird enough that it's intentional. He also looks in Niko's mom's car and hesitates, but then other people come over, and he backs off."

"Almost like he was going to finish the job," Edwin said. "That motion right there, as he walked into the street, that hand movement occurs, and the traffic lights are working normally again." They watched as this mystery person didn't wait for the paramedics or the police to arrive and instead walked into a building just on the edge of the screen. It appeared to be a highrise that was being remodeled. "If this is the person that attacked Jenny and killed the cats to turn Thomas against us, we know that he is manipulating things, and he is only letting us see what he wants us to see. We are seeing this footage and him going into this building because he wants us to and he wants us to follow him."

"Hence, we're probably walking into a trap or ambush of some kind," Charles said with a groan. There was a very good chance that the tormentor wasn't there anymore; it had been a few days, but he had a very good feeling that the area would be empty, either. He agreed with Edwin; if this person is as smart as they think he is, he wants them in this location. Charles glanced at Edwin, who had this pinched expression on his face as he likely came to the same conclusion, but there might be some sort of clue there, and they couldn't leave a stone unturned--not when this person was targeting their friends and allies.

Charles dug into his backpack and got his bat and a spellbook that Edwin could use just in case something happened. It was a short walk across the street to the construction site, and if they were going to do this, they needed to do it now. It would be early morning soon, and workers would start showing up soon. The last thing either of them wanted was a member of the living to get caught up in a trap intended for them.

"Stay behind me," Charles said, and the look Edwin gave him would have sent most people running in the other direction, but Charles was not deterred. "I mean it, mate. You stay behind me and let me take care of this. That's the deal."

"Fine, Charles, for Heaven's sake," Edwin said. They phased through the door with Edwin a step behind Charles. He had his bat in hand and kept an eye on every corner. There was construction equipment everywhere, but so far, it just looked like a normal construction site. It was hard to tell if anyone was in the building since the sound of the city was deafening, even this late at night. They made their way through the first level of the site until they got to the back, where a large symbol was drawn on the floor. The walls in this room were all boarded up with what looked like cheap plywood as if someone had done it very quickly. Charles knew better than to step on whatever was on the floor, but Edwin needed to get close to see what it was. He stayed close to Edwin's back, bat in hand, ready to drop the first thing that came after them.

"Curious," Edwin said softly. "This appears to be a variation of a rune that someone would use if they were trying to summon the dead."

"You think he was going to try and summon us?"

"No, it wouldn't work on us. It was designed to pull demons up from hell, but it's been modified to try and bring a soul back from wherever they ended up. Someone who is extremely experienced with magic and summoning did this, but it appears that the rune didn't work," Edwin explained.

"Then why leave it here? Why guide us here and show us this?" Charles asked out loud. He didn't get the chance to get an answer to that question when something in the room changed. They had triggered something, and he could feel it. Judging from the way Edwin nearly jumped to his feet, he could feel it, too. It felt like pressure was building in the room, but nothing around them changed. Charles grabbed Edwin to shield him from whatever was coming, but the force shoved them back as hard as possible. He was expecting it to hurt when he hit the wall, but what Charles wasn't expecting was what felt like hundreds of small pricks of blinding pain all over his back.

He'd protected Edwin from whatever was on the wall he had hit, but the pain was blinding. Vaguely, he heard Edwin saying something to him, but he sounded far away. All Charles could focus on was the pain in his back, and he gave into the scream of pain he was desperately trying to hold in. Everything was a bit black around the edges, and Charles decided that giving into the black was a good idea, if only for a moment.

+++

Charles came back to the sound of Edwin yelling his name. Not much time had passed, which was good, but there was still a significant amount of pain in his back. It wasn't so bad that Charles couldn't sit up, but Edwin was helping him nevertheless and saying something about iron and his back. The words weren't making sense, though, and he said as much to Edwin.

"All of these walls have iron nails in them, hundreds of them, everywhere," Edwin said. "We must have triggered something the second we walked into the room. He wanted both of us pushed back and impaled on those nails. You protected me from them, but you hit many of them."

"You're saying this guy puts hundreds of iron nails in these walls so that we would hit them?" Charles asked, and Edwin nodded. "Who the fuck does that? And to what end?"

"It's not just that. The rune vanished once the spell was activated, and I didn't get to sketch all the details. We cannot have Crystal come do a reading," Edwin said.

"So you're saying, at the end of this, all we are a dozen iron holes healing in me, a rune that doesn't exist anymore, and a shot of this man that doesn't show his face in any way," Charles stated.

"Essentially, we have nothing," Edwin said. They had nothing for Niko as well, and somehow, that hurt even more than the healing iron wounds on Charles's back. They sat at that construction site for a long time until workers arrived and loudly complained about the plywood walls someone must have put up after hours because they weren't supposed to be there.

They had a couple of things that they had to do first. While it wasn't easy now that the store was open, they got a copy of the CCTV footage of the crash, so they had at least some sort of photo. They also returned to the police station to get a copy of the police report. Edwin found an old printer hidden in a storage closet, and it took a little work, but they got it up and running, and they were able to send the report to the printer and had a hard copy of the entire thing. It was just another thing they would add to the "unsolved" wall.

It was mid-afternoon when they mirror hopped back to the hospital. Niko and Crystal were already there, and Niko's mom looked a little better, at least to Charles. The girls agreed to meet them just outside the hospital so they could speak freely, and they were able to find a small bench where they could deliver the bad news. Edwin was much closer to Niko than Charles was, so he let Edwin do most of the talking. He explained the accident, what they had seen, the traffic lights, and the mysterious man who appeared and left a strange rune and the trap on the construction site.

"Niko, it appears your mother was targeted because of your connection to us and--"

"No," Niko said, cutting him off. "I'm not going to listen to you two blame each other for this. Do you want to know why?" They wordlessly nodded their heads. "If you hadn't come to Port Townsend, I would be dead. The sprites were already inside of me when you arrived, so if you hadn't come and we hadn't met, I would be dead. So don't you ever think of apologizing for something that isn't your fault; I won't stand for it."

It took a lot to render Edwin speechless, but Niko always managed to do it. Crystal wrapped an arm around Niko's shoulder and pulled her into a hug she had just melted into. "How can we help?" Crystal asked.

"I need to stay and care for my mom," Niko said. "So don't forget about me or replace me in the agency. I want my place to still be there when I get back."

"No one can replace you, Niko," Charles said. She pulled both of them into tight hugs. Charles was all too happy to return, and Crystal said she would work on getting a flight home as soon as possible. They were still going to be spending a lot of time at the hospital, so it would be best if Edwin and Charles went back to London, which was exactly what they did.

Charles watched as Edwin made the case file for Niko's mother and meticulously filled it with all of the information they had so far. It was added to the same place as Jenny's assault and the killings in Port Townsend. "It was different this time. If he was trying to get Niko to hate us, I'm not even sure what he could do to make that happen," Charles said as he stood side by side with Edwin, looking over those unsolved cases. They were shoulder to shoulder, and Charles pushed down his desire to wrap Edwin up in his arms and hold onto him as tightly as possible. He missed something today, and Edwin almost got hurt; Charles could not let that happen again.

"What if the intention isn't to make people dislike us?" Edwin said. "We hypothesized that he wants to separate us and make us easier targets, but maybe he's going out this in a different way. You cannot separate us without first severing our ties to the living world. The point of the car accident wasn't to make Niko hate us; it was to force her to relocate to Japan, hence temporarily severing yet another tie to the living world."

"All right, let's assume all of that; we still aren't any closer to a "why," and if we are following the pattern, Crystal is next," Charles replied.

"We'll have to protect her." When Edwin said that, he made it sound like it was going to be easy, but it was clear that this guy was going about this in weird ways. They could protect Crystal from a threat that was directly in front of them, but Charles didn't know how they could protect her from this.

It would take Crystal a little bit of time to get a plane ticket back to London, which meant that Edwin had plenty of time to argue with Charles about his pathological need to put himself in harm's way. While Edwin might have loved Charles more than anyone he had ever met, and that was an interesting revelation that he had not long after his confession, his partner was also insanely stubborn to a fault. It didn't matter how often Edwin tried to tell him to stop and that he could handle himself; Charles still thought of himself as some shield that had to take the blows.

Edwin hated it.

"Charles, you were impaled on multiple iron nails," Edwin said. His voice sounded a pitch higher than usual because he felt like he was about to lose his mind; what about this was Charles not getting?

"I know, certainly stung quite a bit," Charles replied. He was reclined on their couch like he didn't have a care in the world, while Edwin couldn't get himself to stop pacing. Someone was hunting them, trying to hurt those that they were close to, and had managed to hurt Charles twice. It felt like running through the dollhouse all over again; Edwin swore he could feel the spider breathing down his neck. It took him a minute to realize that Charles was calling his name.

Edwin blinked and realized that Charles was standing right in front of him, and he looked afraid. "Nice and slow there, mate." Edwin couldn't understand what Charles was talking about until his hands were on Edwin's arms, and he removed Edwin's fingers from his hair. Edwin realized a brief sensation was coming from the fact that he had been pulling at his hair. With so much care, it made something in Edwin's chest hurt; Charles carefully uncurled his fingers so he was no longer clenching them into fists.

When the last finger was free, Charles looked up at him as if asking a question. Edwin didn't know what the question was, but this was Charles, so the answer was probably 'yes.' He must have seen what he wanted to because he tangled their fingers together and gently moved them both over to the couch. When Edwin sat down, it was like the tension finally broke, and whatever it was had passed.

Edwin became very aware of Charles's hand in his own and how closely the two of them were sitting on the couch. He realized how easy it would be to close the distance and kiss the boy he was in love with, but Edwin didn't know if Charles would want that, and he couldn't risk their friendship.

"I spent 70 years in hell being hunted," Edwin said carefully. "Now we are being hunted here, and it's even worse because the person I care about the most is the one getting hurt."

"I'm not going to apologize for trying to keep you safe," Charles replied. "But I'll try to stop getting hurt so much." Edwin released Charles's hand and cupped his face with the care and love Charles Rowland deserved. Edwin pressed their foreheads together and lingered a little longer to soak in the feeling of closeness. Eventually, they had to pull back, and Edwin felt much better, even if the feeling of the spider was still there. He had a feeling it wouldn't go anywhere until they found out who this was and stopped them.

"I know we talked about not going anywhere without each other, but that was under the assumption that Crystal and Niko were going to be nearby," Edwin explained because he needed to have some level of control over this. "However, now that Niko is so far away, I believe we still need to see her, but we need to stay with Crystal since we know she is likely the next target."

"You've protected the office with wards and spells over the years, so it's pretty safe here," Charles said after a moment of silence. "If Crystal and I stay here, then you can visit Niko since we don't know if the car accident is the last thing they will do to her." While Charles had a point, Edwin felt that the car accident was what he would do to her. He knew things about them, at least to some level, so he must have known that it would be nearly impossible to get Niko to hate them simply for being friends. Edwin also knew it would make them both feel a lot better if someone could see, with their own two eyes, that she was okay.

"Very well, maybe you can even convince Crystal to sleep here as well. She has done it before, so I don't see why she wouldn't do it again," Edwin said. Charles didn't look particularly hopeful that she would agree to do that, but stranger things had certainly happened, and Crystal wasn't stupid. She would take the necessary precautions if and when they explained what was happening.

+++

Edwin disliked being wrong in general, but it utterly confounded him this time. When Crystal returned from London, she seemed to come to the same conclusion they did about her potentially being the next target, which made it a scenario they might have to contend with. That didn't make her any less stubborn about it, and it was moments like this when Edwin understood what Charles meant when he said that Edwin and Crystal were very similar. It was like arguing with a brick wall. Only this brick wall could read minds.

"It's for your own protection," Edwin said for what felt like the tenth time.

"I heard you, but I don't see why my protection means I have to sleep on the pullout for god knows how long," Crystal replied. "Why can't you two come back to my place and protect me there?"

"Because the office is safer due to the protection measures that I have taken." Edwin knew his voice was getting a little loud, but he just could not understand why she was fighting them on this.

"All right, you two," Charles said, effectively breaking up the fight. "Edwin, you want her to stay here because it's safer and easier to guard. Crystal, you want to stay at your apartment and think we should come to you because it's your space, and you don't want to stop living life because of this arsehole. How did I do?" Edwin glanced at Crystal, who also looked a bit stunned and silent.

"Pretty much nailed it," she said as Edwin nodded.

"Aces, so there is another room we can set up for you, Crystal. That way, you can have some space away from us, but you'll still be behind all of Edwin's wards. It'll take us a minute to clear some room out because it's all storage right now, but it can be yours until we figure this out, all right?" Charles asked.

"That solution is acceptable to me if it is acceptable to you," Edwin said to Crystal, and she sighed heavily but nodded as well.

"Yeah, that will work, even if I'm not particularly happy about it. We'll have to make regular trips back to my place, though," she said. "You barely have working toilets and no shower." That made complete sense, considering that neither of them needed those things, and Edwin had vague memories of Niko and Crystal talking about getting the bathroom working well enough.

Edwin wasn't happy with Charles leaving his sight, but Crystal needed things from her apartment, and they needed to clear out the room. So, even though it formed a knot in his stomach, Edwin was left alone to go through everything. The first thing Edwin did was remove anything too triggering to Crystal's powers. He didn't want her to roll out of bed, under-caffeinated and half asleep, only to accidentally touch something that sent her into an awful vision. Once he got the worst things out of the room, Edwin went down to the second worst things and sorted the room that way. Some objects were harmless and would have been easier to move, but Crystal saw enough as it was. He didn't want anything in the place where she would be sleeping to contribute to it.

When Charles and Crystal returned with some of her belongings, Edwin explained his system to her and how the things he still deemed problematic were in the furthest possible corner from where the bed they would purchase for her would be. Whatever he was expecting, it was not Crystal throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly. It wasn't terrible, but Edwin managed to awkwardly pat Crystal on the back before she pulled away. Charles had just watched the two of them with a fond smile.

Once Crystal had a bed and somewhere to sleep, they arranged a time for Edwin to mirror-hop over to see Niko. She was in her old home that she had grown up in while her mother was still recovering in the hospital, and Edwin didn't even want to think about her sitting alone with those memories. Niko wasn't in any way diminished, but Edwin knew what it looked like when someone was carrying around a pain so heavy it felt like it might crush them.

"She's going to be all right," Edwin whispered as they watched an anime he forgot the name of. Niko slowly fell onto his side until Edwin was holding her. She was shaking just a little, and he could see the tears in her eyes.

"I know you're trying to make me feel better, but I don't appreciate you lying," Niko replied, which was such an out-of-pocket thing for her to say. "You can't promise or know that she will be okay. We don't know, and I wasn't here when it happened. I hardly even talked to her because talking to her made me think of Dad, but now I almost lost her too." Edwin didn't know exactly what he should say because this was a moment when Charles would know what to do. So, he thought what Charles would say and tried that.

"Your mum loves you, and you're here now. That's all that matters in the end, right?" he said, opting for something simpler rather than going on a rant about it being okay that Niko felt guilty and then doing his best to dissuade said guilt. That was another burden Edwin knew far too much about, and when the time was right, he would sit down with Niko and tell her that her being in Japan wouldn't have stopped this accident. She might have been in the car and ended up hurt; she might have been in a completely different location, but the way their stalker was acting indicated that he was determined to make them hurt by seriously hurting those they cared about. Evil will find a way if it is determined enough; endless running in hell taught Edwin that.

But now wasn't the time, so Edwin held her as they barely watched the show until it was time for him to leave.

+++

Edwin had never wished he had a photographic memory more than when the rune in Tokyo vanished before his eyes. Charles was on the ground, and he was clenching his teeth so hard to try and keep from screaming until he couldn't hold it in anymore. Edwin was frantic as he tried to see if anything was stuck in Charles's back that he would need to remove. The iron nails in the wall were just long enough to do some damage but nothing serious. It was made to hurt. The whole situation was made even worse because the rune was gone, and he didn't have time to sketch it, so Charles got hurt for absolutely nothing.

Maybe that was why Edwin dove directly into one of the books on summoning and meticulously began to look over every single spell he could find. The logic was that he would recognize the rune, and maybe that would trigger something so he would remember the changes. It wasn't going well, and Edwin was pretty sure he would go cross-eyed soon if he didn't stop reading. Crystal was asleep in the next room, and the cohabitation was going well so far. It had only been ten days, but that seemed like enough time for something catastrophic to happen if it was going to happen. Since it hadn't, Edwin was pretty convinced it wouldn't be an issue. Charles was sitting on the couch and going through the mail, but he was frowning deeply as he looked at the letters.

"What is it?" Edwin asked.

"More letters from other ghosts saying that ghosts tethered to locations have been moved," Charles replied. "Some of them have the chance of going poltergeist because of how angry it's making them, and it's making others nearby nervous."

"If there is a poltergeist, then we need to take care of it before it hurts someone," Edwin said, but Charles shook his head.

"This letter here says that someone already came to take care of it. They couldn't tell who or what she was, but it looked like she could do magic," he said. "She doesn't sound like anyone we know; young adult, pretty, with brown hair and, as this ghost of a grandmother keeping an eye on her grandchildren said in the letter, 'a mouth on her unbecoming of a lady.' Sounds like something, you'd say, Edwin." Edwin disagreed with that statement but decided that calling attention to it was pointless.

"Where did the most recent ghost vanish from, and where did it end up?" Edwin asked, and Charles replied with two different addresses across the city. It wasn't an extremely long distance, but it was significant enough. "I believe we should go interview some of the ghosts from those locations. If nothing else, we need to find more information about this other magic user. We don't know if they have allies." He meant that they didn't know if this other magic user knew or was allied with the man currently stalking them. Charles nodded as he gathered some things for his backpack and handed Edwin the letter detailing the ghost being moved, the poltergeist, and this unknown magic user.

Fortunately, the area of the city where the ghost was taken was one they were familiar with, so it was fairly easy to mirror-hop to the area. The letter gave specific enough directions to the building where the ghost was originally tethered. Edwin wasn't even that surprised when he found out that there was more than one ghost. A man in his late 40s emerged from the shadows and looked at them with some serious trepidation.

"I've heard of you lot," the man said, interrupting Edwin's introduction before it even started. "You're those detectives supposed to solve mysteries or help people move on."

"That's correct; we're the Dead Boy Detectives," Edwin said, but he could tell this man was not thrilled to see them. From the corner of his eye, Edwin saw Charles adjust his stance just a little, indicating that if this ghost got violent, he would likely throw Edwin across the room if it meant protecting him.

"I'm not ready to go anywhere, and I don't have anything you tossers need to solve, so fuck off," he yelled. The walls seemed to shake a little, and it was clear that this man was aggressive, but Edwin had a feeling he knew why.

"We're not here to do anything to you," Edwin explained carefully, raising his hands in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. "We heard another ghost was removed from this location he was tethered to and put somewhere else. That's very strange, and we want to know more about what is happening and who is doing it. That's all we want from you. Just tell us if you saw your friend get taken or if you remember anything about it." The man looked like he did not believe a word Edwin said, and this was not going how he wanted it to.

"Your little friend back there looks like he's about to attack like the dog he is," he said. Edwin was about to go back on his word on hurting this man when Charles spoke up.

"You don't touch him, and we won't have a problem," Charles said, completely bypassing the disgusting comment. Edwin wanted to argue, but Charles moved closer so their shoulders and arms were pressed together. It was grounding and settled Edwin's rage, at least for now.

"Fine," the man said. "His name was Rupert, and he'd been here longer than I had. He died here and didn't want to leave the building; something about his accident not being an accident or some shit like that. One day, I heard him screaming, and I walked in to see that he was just gone. I could tell he hadn't moved on; there was something that hung around in the area, but it didn't last long. I didn't see him again."

"Would you say he was taken very quickly, or was it drawn out?" Edwin asked. This man was still glaring at Charles like he was somehow the problem in this situation, and Edwin was about to call on Death or hell himself out of sheer spite.

"Fast, are we done now?" the man clearly didn't want them on his territory anymore, and Edwin was not in the mood to deal with a poltergeist. So they didn't thank him and promptly left without another word.

"I should have summoned Death or hell on him for how he spoke to you," Edwin said.

"I appreciate the righteous indignation about the racism, Edwin, but it won't help," Charles said.

"Why?"

"Because the dead don't change, not really," Charles said with a shrug. "We're the exception because we're still living in our afterlives and still changing. But most of the dead are sometimes stuck in the same place, figuratively and literally. If they weren't able to get over that bullshit while they were alive and capable of changing, why would I expect the dead to be any different?" There was something about that statement that Edwin didn't like because he had spent years unlearning so many things the longer he was out of hell. The mere hint that there was a time when Charles might have thought he wasn't capable of change was incredibly horrifying. He must have done a poor job hiding this minor crisis because Charles's hand slipped into his and threaded their fingers together. The touch brought Edwin back to reality. "Not you, never you, not even once you."

They hopped to the next location, where they found Edith looking over her family exactly like she had said she was. Her letter even had a return address, so it was easy to find, but she looked a little confused when she saw them. Edith looked at the letter and frowned.

"Well, that's what I saw, and that's my handwriting, but I don't remember writing to you boys," she said. "But, I was forgetting things when I died, and even in death, I'm still forgetting things, so it's not that unusual that I couldn't remember." Something about that bothered Edwin, but he couldn't linger on it right now, and Edith looked like she really wanted to get back in the flat where her family was.

"What can you tell us about the woman who dealt with the poltergeist when it appeared?" Charles asked carefully.

"She was pretty, not young, maybe in her mid to late thirties if I was guessing," Edith replied. "She had a white coat on, and her hair was brown. The mouth on her was ridiculous, if any of my children or grandchildren spoke like that I would have rinsed their mouth out with soap. I couldn't place her accent, but she sounded like she was from further North."

"How long was it between the poltergeist arriving and this woman arriving?" Edwin asked, ignoring the soap comment for now even though he knew it would bother Charles--it wasn't the time.

"A few days at least, but it's so hard to keep track of time," Edith said, but she frowned. "One of the neighbors heard the noise and called her."

"It was a member of the living that called her?" Charles asked, and she nodded. Few people in the United Kingdom could deal with a poltergeist and were willing to do it for money. Edwin thought that it would make her much easier to track down. They thanked Edith and looked around the spot where Rupert, the poltergeist who was moved across the city, was placed. There were many classic signs with broken things and some scratches on the walls. However, this magic user didn't leave any trace of herself behind. They had a description and the fact that this woman was someone who could be hired. That had to be enough to get them somewhere.

Edwin couldn't believe they still found nothing. He was sure someone would come up, and maybe this magic user could help them find the one that was hunting them or the one that was moving the ghosts. They brought Crystal to the spot and had her do a reading, but all she saw was fire and a little girl screaming. So that wasn't any help either. They had solved a few smaller cases since, and thus far, no one had gotten close to Crystal, but it had been a month, and she clearly wanted to sleep in her own bed in her own home. Niko's mother was released from the hospital, but Niko was staying in Tokyo until she could safely live on her own, which could be weeks away. So it was just the three of them trying to keep up with the caseload from the Lost and Found Department while getting nowhere with these two other incidents.

"Hey Edwin?" Crystal said one afternoon as they were looking through everything yet again. "You said that the rune you found in Tokyo was used for summoning demons and was modified to bring souls back from the afterlife, right?"

"Yes, though I still haven't been able to locate the original rune in any of my books," Edwin replied.

"These ghosts are being moved across the city until they become poltergeists. Is that something completely different?" she asked, and Edwin hummed in agreement without looking up from the papers he was currently looking at. "Could it be the same person?"

"You mean the stalker and this ghost kidnapper?" Charles asked.

"I suppose it's possible, but I fail to see how the two are connected," Edwin replied. "We know this stalker is trying to separate us and target our allies for some nefarious purpose. The person who is moving these ghosts is just moving them. They aren't summoning us, and we aren't tethered to a location, so everything about it would be pointless in an attempt to harm us." Crystal looked thoughtful as she looked at the board and tilted her head to the side.

"I guess it just seems weird that we have these two cases that we can't solve with two magic users involved," she said.

"Unfortunately, there are times when we have way more unsolved and pending cases than solved ones," Charles said as he shrugged. "Just like any other business, the kind of clients we see changes. Two cases on the board we're bloody stumped on? That have happened before. You just haven't seen it yet."

"I hadn't thought of it that way," Crystal said, but she was still staring at the wall where all their pending and unsolved cases were hanging as if it would somehow give her the answer if she looked at it long enough. Edwin knew better than to try to redirect Crystal if she was lost in her head like this and opted to wait it out instead. Charles was usually the one who would walk Crystal back to her apartment, but he wanted to spend some time with Niko, and Crystal did not want to wait, so Edwin had to go.

"How much longer will I have to hide in the office?" Crystal asked after they had walked silently for almost an entire city block.

"This man manipulated traffic lights to possibly kill Niko's mother in a car accident, and you want to go home?" Edwin asked. He was still utterly bewildered that Crystal seemed to think that being anywhere other than the safest location was a good idea. He could feel the spider right behind him but forced himself not to turn around because Edwin knew it wasn't actually there. It was just his mind telling him a lie because the anxiety of someone stalking them put undue stress on him.

"We have nothing on this guy, Edwin," Crystal replied. "We have no way to move forward with the case, so I don't see an end in sight. You and Charles are all right roommates, but I want my own apartment again. I want to be able to shower whenever I want. I want to cook my own food instead of relying on take-out because you don't have a kitchen. I can't stay there indefinitely; it's just not practical, and I think you know that."

Edwin knew she was right, and the frustration that they were no closer to solving any of this just made everything even worse. "If you allow me to put up some protective wards and spells at your apartment and promise not to go anywhere without an escort, I believe we could arrange something."

"That sounds like something that would work long-term, and it would keep the two of us from finding out whether or not you can die a second time," Crystal smirked when Edwin glared at her. When he tried to correct her that he was already dead, she couldn't kill him again no matter how much she might want to; Crystal sped up and ignored him. It was moments like this when he wondered how much of this dynamic was mirrored in his relationship with Charles and how he managed to put up with it for nearly four decades.

There were a few basic wards that Edwin could cast without needing to go back to the office. Once they arrived in Crystal's obnoxiously large apartment that she usually shared with Niko, she walked off to the kitchen after dropping her things on the couch, and Edwin got to work. He was about halfway through the second one when Crystal's mobile phone vibrated repeatedly. It was a touch screen, so he could not deal with it, and the sound was incredibly distracting.

"Crystal, your phone will not stop vibrating, so unless you want me to make a mistake while doing wards, I'd like you to get it to stop," he called out. Crystal made a sound but walked into the living room and picked up the phone. Edwin was about to continue when he noticed Crystal frowning as she looked at her phone. "What is happening?"

"Huh?" she replied, clearly not paying attention.

"I said, what is happening?" Edwin repeated.

"Oh, sorry, it's just something that has happened since I came back to London. The people I was a bitch to before and during David hear I'm back in town, and they want to make sure I know exactly what they think of me," Crystal replied. Something in her voice was just a little off; it was the tone version of the uncanny valley because he could tell she was trying to be blasé and failing miserably.

"You did those things many months or even years ago; why bring them up again?" he asked.

"Sometimes, people hold grudges, and it doesn't matter how many times you try to get them to forgive you; they just aren't going to do it," Crystal replied. "You can't force someone to forgive you either, or you'll end up down the exact same rabbit hole I'm making my way through." Crystal dimmed the phone screen, put it in her pocket, and crossed her arms across like it would protect her. "I made myself one hell of bed before I met you and Charles, Edwin, and I have to lie in it." Edwin wasn't sure he entirely agreed with that statement, but Crystal walked back into the kitchen without another word, and he knew a dismissal when he saw one. It was a move he was all too familiar with.

+++

When Charles returned from visiting Niko, he got into a very loud yelling match with Crystal about her safety and moving out of the room in the office. Edwin knew that Charles was the one who wanted to keep all of them safe, but he hadn't seen him react like this in a while. The fight ended with the two of them refusing to speak to one another, thus making Edwin the middleman for this argument. It was probably the most awkward couple of days of his life, but eventually, the anger passed, and they started talking to each other again.

The Night Nurse returned, picked up their solved cases, and dropped off some new ones. She still looked at them with a level of disdain that Edwin would find impressive if she didn't scare the hell out of him. All she needed to do was say they weren't useful anymore, and his file would be stamped for hell. Edwin was sure Charles would come for him if he were retaken, but he was not sure they would escape again. When he was alive, Edwin remembered the feeling of a stone settling in his stomach that was impossible to ignore, and when he thought about that inevitability, that stone returned.

On his weakest days, Edwin wanted to ask Charles to promise not to come after him if he was taken a third time. The idea of being stuck in hell scared him, but the idea that might drag Charles down with him was a reality that Edwin could not even comprehend. However, he knew that Charles would never agree to that. "Sorry. No version of this where I didn't come to get you," were the words he said on those stairs, and Edwin believed him. Edwin could have spent the rest of their afterlives telling Charles it was a bad idea to follow him down if it happened again. Charles would spend the rest of their afterlives looking at him like he was an idiot for even thinking not following was an option.

They got some more reports that ghosts were being moved. Sometimes, they were harmless, and Death even came to pick them up before they arrived. Sometimes, they were poltergeists that needed to be dealt with. Every now and then, the woman no one knew the name of had come by and dealt with it. If anyone knew who she was, they weren't saying anything, and the blanket of silence was beginning to concern Edwin more than anything. He just hoped people weren't talking because they were afraid of her. That would be somehow even more sinister.

It was early one morning, and they were both out with Crystal. She stopped in a cafe to get some coffee. Edwin didn't want to follow her into the building, but their stalker was still hiding in the shadows, and her being in public didn't mean anything. He was about to ask Charles the final things needed to wrap up their last case when someone slammed into Crystal. The hit was hard enough that she dumped her entire hot coffee all over herself, and she cried out in pain. The employees immediately rushed over to try and help her, but the person who hit her just looked at her, muttered something under their breath, and walked away without checking to see if she was okay.

Edwin wanted to chase the person down to yell at them for being so incredibly rude, but someone was putting a towel on Crystal's hand because there was a burn from the coffee. One of the employees apologized over and over again for making the coffee so hot. Charles was nearby but unable to do much of anything without drawing attention to himself and Crystal interacting with something that wasn't there. Once she assured the employee she wasn't at her, Crystal accepted the towel with ice and walked outside where Edwin and Charles could join her.

"May I?" Edwin asked.

"I should knock that tosser upside the head and see how he likes it," Charles muttered. He looked around, trying to find the person who ran into Crystal.

"We are not doing that," Crystal replied, but she removed the towel so Edwin could see her hand. Edwin touched her arm carefully so he didn't aggravate the burn any worse. He didn't think it was a second-degree burn but a very nasty first-degree burn that would sting for a while.

"If you're amendable, I might have something I can mix up at the office to help with the pain," Edwin said.

"I'm amendable," Crystal replied.

"What did he say to you?" Charles asked. "I know he didn't apologize, but he said something to you and walked away, but I couldn't hear it." Charles wasn't close enough to see it because he was still looking for someone to yell at, but Edwin saw how Crystal flinched. For a moment, he wasn't sure that she would tell them anything, and they would have to ask multiple times, but eventually, Crystal explained.

"It was a guy I ripped off with my powers before I met you. He was pissed off and decided that this was the best way to get even with me," she muttered.

"Is this the same person that was messaging you?" Edwin asked, and Crystal shook her head.

"I think you guys are underestimating what a shitty person I was before I met you both," Crystal replied with a bitter laugh. "Let's just get back to the agency. I want some of that crap that you said would help, Edwin, and I'm not letting you go beat anyone up, Charles, so there's no point in standing here and talking about this." Edwin glanced at Charles, who was frowning deeply like he didn't like this, but Crystal was the one in pain, and this was something that happened to her. He carefully released her arm, and they began to make their way back to the office. The ice in the towel melted and dripped water on the sidewalk as they went like a trail of breadcrumbs in a fairytale.

Edwin wished for rain because it was a clear path leading someone to their sanctuary.

+++

Edwin had spent a decent amount of time learning how to make things that would help heal the living if the worst should happen. It was a new skill, but one that he was fairly confident in, and judging from the way Crystal immediately relaxed once he applied the salve to her burn, it worked. Charles still looked like he wanted to go hit someone with a cricket bat, but Crystal's body language screamed that she didn't want either of them to leave.

"I hate it," she whispered. "I hate that I was such a terrible person that I can't even remember everything I did to people. It's like there are two versions of me: the one before I met you and the one after, and I don't know how to reconcile them. I'm not even sure if either of them is really me."

"Crystal," Charles said as he sat beside her on the couch and put an arm around her shoulders. "You and Edwin beat it into my head that bad people don't worry about whether or not they're bad. You're worried, so I don't think you're a bad person."

"I haven't told you guys everything I did," she muttered. Edwin was not good at comforting people who weren't Niko or Charles, but he couldn't stand by and watch Crystal tear herself apart like this. He knelt in front of her and took her hands into his. She was so surprised by the motion that she nearly flinched but didn't pull away.

"Charles and I have seen decades of terrible people so adamant that they were not the problem that they couldn't move on after they died," Edwin said carefully. "You know where I spent decades of my afterlife, so rest assured that if anyone knows what a bad person looks like, it's me, and you, Crystal Palace, are not a bad person."

"But what about all of the things I did?" she whispered.

"You got a little lost on the way. You have powers that would have driven most people to madness, yet here you sit, the most sane of the three of us by far." That was the thing that seemed to bring Crystal back, and she telegraphed the hug she pulled Edwin into. He accepted it readily; Edwin was at her front, and Charles was at her back. Crystal seemed to pull herself together. When she pulled back, Crystal surprised Edwin by placing a chaste kiss on his cheek, and she did the same to Charles.

"I'm so lucky Emma hired you two to help me," she said. Crystal stayed the night in the storage room after they worked on cases for the rest of the day. When the door to the room closed, Charles was suddenly very much in Edwin's space with one of the brightest smiles he'd seen on him in a very long time.

"You're brilliant," Charles said, and Edwin wasn't sure if ghosts could blush. If they could, he would be blushing because he knew that Charles wasn't talking about the work they put into cases today. Charles gently knocked their foreheads together and stepped away like he hadn't left Edwin breathless when they also didn't need to breathe. Before Port Townsend, he would have been embarrassed by his reaction to his partner, but Niko's voice echoing in his mind reminded him that he was nothing to be ashamed of anymore.

+++

Edwin wasn't overly fond of working out of Crystal's apartment, but she was a little more on edge since the incident in the coffee shop, and she kept looking at her phone with an expression that he could not figure out. When he asked her what was going on, she did not answer, so he asked Charles to ask her, and she did the same to him. Edwin even got Niko to ask on a video call, and Crystal still would not say what had her so on edge. It clearly bothered her because she asked them to stay over more often, and little sounds made her jump.

Then the letters started appearing in her mailbox, and Crystal would pretend they weren't there. If he tried to get anywhere near them, she would suddenly decide she needed to take the bins out and practically run out of the door. She was hiding something from them, but he didn't know what to do, and he didn't know how to help her if she wasn't willing to speak to them. Charles looked like he was about to lose his mind when the mirror-hopped into her apartment and saw Crystal talking to her landlord about changing the locks on her door because someone had tried to break in.

Charles looked like he wanted to hit something again, but Edwin began to put some pieces together. He thought about warding Crystal's apartment and how someone had messaged her all those weeks ago. He thought about the incident in the coffee shop and how she got hurt. He thought about how Crystal was hiding her phone from both of them and frowning at it a lot. There was a pattern here, one that he didn't like and one that Edwin was not expecting. The landlord finished changing the lock, and Crystal turned to look at them.

"Was it someone else that you believe has justifiable reasons to hold a grudge against you?" Edwin asked.

"Edwin, I know you have opinions about how I'm approaching this--" Crystal started.

"I do, but right now, I'm more worried about this timeline," Edwin interrupted. "We hypothesized that our stalker would go after you next, and we thought he would use violence. Maybe he isn't using violence to attack you, Crystal; maybe he's using your past."

"The timeline does make sense," Charles said after a moment. "Why are people suddenly deciding now is the time to get even when you've been back in London for months?"

"So you're stalker has decided the best way to hurt me is to get me canceled on social media?" Crystal asked, and she sounded very dubious. On the other hand, Edwin only understood half of those words and nearly none of them in context. "This guy tries to get Jenny assaulted, kills a bunch of cats, and causes a two-car fatal car crash, but this is how he's going after me? This is stupid; it makes no sense. I don't believe it."

"Do you not believe it because it doesn't seem right, or do you not want it to be true because you think you deserve the punishment?" Charles asked. That was a good question, and Edwin was about to commend Charles for asking it when he noticed that Crystal was glaring at both of them.

"I was a shit person, and this is just karma. Stop jumping at shadows that aren't there," she snapped. Crystal walked into her room and slammed the door hard enough that the flat seemed to rattle a little. Edwin knew a dismissal when he saw one, but Charles looked like he might try to go into her room anyway. Edwin reached out, wordlessly put a hand on Charles's arm, and shook his head. They didn't know if this was the man trying to hurt them; this could have been just a coincidence in terms of timing, but Edwin's gut told him otherwise.

Charles had everything they needed to work at Crystal's flat in his backpack, so they just set up shop in her living room and started going over some of the cases the Night Nurse had left with them. Crystal didn't come out of her room until well into the evening, and when she did, she didn't acknowledge that they were there at all. Charles looked like he wanted to do something to try and fix this, but Edwin could tell that this was not something they could fix. If this really was Crystal's karma for the person she was before David and Port Townsend, then she needed to deal with that on her own.

And if this was the stalker, then they were close by if and when they were needed.

+++

Three days later after someone tried to break into Crystal's apartment, and Edwin thought that maybe they had gotten lucky and it was just a coincidence. Crystal's phone seemed quieter, and she didn't frown every time she looked at it. He hoped this was behind them, and they could focus on cases and maybe tracking down the person moving the ghosts. Edwin should have known better than to think they would get lucky in any sense of the word.

One afternoon, they were working in the living room when there were hard knocks on Crystal's door. She frowned and muttered that she wasn't expecting anyone. Edwin glanced at Charles, who might have been pulling his bat out from his backpack just in case. Crystal looked through the peephole and opened the door to three police officers from Scottland Yard waiting for her. Edwin thought they were following up on the attempted break-in because even if Crystal hadn't filed a report, he had hoped the building had.

"Hello, officers. Is there something I can help you with?" Crystal asked.

"Are you Crystal Palace Surname-Von Hoverkraft?" one of the officers asked, and immediately, Edwin was on edge because he knew that tone of voice.

"Yes, what's going on?" Crystal asked carefully.

"Madame, we have a warrant for your arrest. You are being charged with larceny, fraud, and assault. Put your hands behind your back so we can do this with as little fanfare as possible," the officer replied. Edwin had to stop Charles from potentially doing something incredibly stupid, like trying to help Crystal evade the police. For a moment, Edwin thought she was going to do something stupid, like try to evade three officers of the law, but she looked over her shoulder and saw the two of them watching her. Crystal turned around and put her hands behind her back.

"I want to contact my parents' lawyer," Crystal said as they guided her out of the apartment. They assured her that they would allow her to do that, and the door closed. Immediately, Edwin and Charles raced over to the mirror and made their way to the police station. They needed to see this case against Crystal as soon as possible.

They probably should have been more careful when they arrived at Scottland Yard, but Edwin also realized that both of them were a little on edge. The escalation here seemed to be pointing toward something similar to the way their stalker was killing the cats in Port Townsend. Too much was lining up for Edwin not to assume this was the same person once again, targeting someone close to them.

It was the middle of the day, so it took them a little time to find an empty office. However, as soon as they did, Charles took up the watch at the door while Edwin sat down at the computer. He relayed the escalation theory to Charles as he looked up any information on what Crystal was being charged with.

"I thought I'd be able to protect her," Charles muttered, but Edwin knew that there likely wasn't anything either of them could have done. This stalker was determined, and he was not willing to do anything obvious.

"This could have been the second choice, and we were able to protect her from something else," Edwin replied. Charles didn't look like he believed him, and Edwin didn't really believe himself either. It wasn't hard to find the open case against Crystal, and he was thankful that the detectives working on said case were taking detailed notes because it helped him. "It appears that someone sent security footage of Crystal stealing, committing fraud, and assaulting someone to various people and establishments. They were all sent the same email from an anonymous account, so they decided to go to the police and file the report together. The police have reviewed the footage and confirmed that it is legitimate and has not been doctored in any way. How many of these people will be pursuing legal action is unclear."

"That doesn't explain the person trying to break in or the fact that someone was harassing her on the phone," Charles said. He was still keeping an eye out for someone to come into this office. Crystal should be arriving soon, but it would be hard to speak to her with so many cameras and people watching her.

"It appears that the person she assaulted posted the video on the internet, and it has gone 'viral,' so people are taking justice into their own hands." Edwin didn't quite understand what "going viral" meant, but Niko had patiently explained to him what social media was and how something could get a lot of attention very quickly.

"It still doesn't explain what he's trying to accomplish by doing this aside from tieing Crystal up with court shit. Is there enough evidence for her to get jail time?" Charles asked.

"There is evidence, but considering her age and the fact that this is the first time she has gotten caught doing something like this, it seems unlikely they would want to send her to jail," Edwin replied as he looked everything over. There was evidence here, but the worst of the charges were circumstantial at best, while the others were bad but not terrible. The nature of Crystal’s powers meant that it looked like people were handing over stolen goods willingly. It would make the charges harder to prove.

Charles gestured that Crystal had arrived, and they walked her into an interview room. She folded her hands across the table, looked the detective in the eye, and demanded her parent's lawyer because she wasn't saying a word. Crystal glanced at the two of them and shook her head very slightly. Right now, she didn't want them to get involved.

"We need to find out who sent those messages," Charles said. Neither of them was great with the computers, so the most obvious solution, since Crystal didn't want them hanging around Scottland Yard and possibly being spotted by an officer who had a near-death experience, Niko seemed like the best choice. She looked worried when they walked through the mirror and ran right up to them, her phone in hand.

"Is Crystal okay? I'm seeing all the posts on social media. Is it true she got arrested?" Niko asked.

"Yeah, and it looks like the arsehole that's been ruining our lives might be the one behind it," Charles replied. Edwin filled Niko in on everything they knew, and it was a little validating to hear her say that this was a targeted attack. She also didn't seem entirely convinced that getting Crystal in trouble with the law was entirely the goal of doing all of this. Edwin handed over the email, and Niko began to look through various accounts to see if she could link it to anything.

"People have had their lives ruined because something they did was leaked on social media," Niko explained. "But this is someone we know uses magic of some sort, so it seems like it's a bit out of the way just to ruin Crystal's reputation online when he did so many other things that were worse."

"There is another element to this that we are missing, but I cannot see what it is," Edwin said. He was frustrated because there had to be something they could do to help Crystal get out of this, but even if they tracked down the stalker, he couldn't take back the evidence that was sent to Scottland Yard. The other parts of this case were more straightforward and something he was used to solving, at least on some level.

This involved the internet, social media, and websites that he didn't even know the names of. It made everything that much harder to investigate because Edwin felt like he only had a surface-level understanding of what was going on, and even that wasn't nearly enough. The email address was the only clue they had, and Niko was doing her best to find them something. Until that panned out or Crystal reached out, Edwin knew they were stuck, and he hated feeling helpless more than anything.

+++

Eventually, Niko had to admit defeat that she couldn't find anything on the person who had sent the email. Edwin was trying to figure out if there was anything else she could help them with when her phone lit up with Crystal's name.

"Crystal! Are you out of the big house?" Niko asked as she listened on the other end. "The boys are with me, and we are trying to figure some things out. I'm sure they will want to tell you all about it in person because I only know so much." She paused and gave them both a thumbs up. "You're back at the apartment? Incoming Dead Boys, so keep an eye on the mirror; you keep texting me; bye!" Niko hung up but began to shoo them both toward the mirror. Charles didn't hesitate for a second as he rushed back to London, but Edwin wasn't that far behind.

When they returned to Crystal's flat, she was putting product into her wet hair and sitting on the couch in clean clothes. Edwin glanced at the time and realized that it had been about eight hours since she had been arrested, so she might have spent the night in a cell.

"Don't say something stupid," Crystal interrupted before either of them could speak. "You couldn't stay with me at the station, and we all know it. There are too many people who could have possibly seen you, and that would have complicated things. Both of your faces are doing this thing where you look guilty, like you think you did something wrong. You didn't, you went to Niko and I assume tried to get some answers about what's going on. That's what I would have wanted you to do. So I'm not going to accept any apologies from either of you; I have had too little sleep to argue about it, got it?" Edwin glanced at Charles, who shrugged slightly because what choice did they have?

"I'm just glad you're safe," Charles replied. When he crossed the room and pulled Crystal into a tight hug, Edwin noticed that she held onto him much tighter than she usually would have. If Charles were alive, it would have been a bone-crushing hug that knocked the wind out of you. Crystal's eyes were a little misty when she broke the hug with Charles, but Edwin wasn't about to call attention to it.

"I'm afraid I don't actually know that much," Crystal said as they sat down in the living room. "I didn't want to risk a reading getting caught on camera and then having to explain it so I couldn't just touch one of the officers. I was taught from a young age that you tell the police nothing and you tell paramedics everything, and since they didn't call medical for me, all I did was ask for my lawyer and shut up. Since I wasn't talking and asked for my lawyer, they couldn't do much or talk to me, so I just sat there until I got bailed out."

"I know you don't think this is connected to the stalker, but Charles and I believe it is," Edwin explained. "The escalation in harassment toward you and how it has started and continued follows the pattern we saw in Port Townsend; he starts slow, and things get worse. He was much slower this time than Port Townsend, but it makes sense. He sent video evidence of several crimes to people within the London area, and they took this evidence to the police. One of the people has also shared the evidence on social media."

"Niko was filling me in on that," Crystal said as she referenced her phone. "So he's trying to get me arrested? I've never been in trouble, and while I'm nearly eighteen, I'm not yet, so even if I were convicted, I probably wouldn't serve any jail time. What's the point of this?"

"That's what we're trying to find out, too," Charles said. Edwin was about to say something else when Crystal's phone rang, raising both of her eyebrows. She turned the screen so they could see it, and it read, 'MOM.'

"Hey mom, what's up?" Crystal said, wincing from whatever was said over the phone. "You're walking into my building right now?" Crystal blinked at her phone, and moments later, there was a harsh knock on the door. There was no reason to assume that either of Crystal's parents could see them, but moving back a little just in case was best. Crystal opened the door, and both her parents pushed their way into the apartment without waiting to be invited in.

"Crystal, what is going on?" her mother, Maddy, demanded. When Crystal opened her mouth to explain, Maddy held up a hand to silence her. "Never mind; it doesn't matter because whatever you have gotten into has already been leaked online."

"I know, Mom, I saw it," Crystal replied.

"I'm sure you did," her father, Seth, muttered. "You know who else saw it? Everyone, including anyone wanting to associate with us and the family. We've lost two contracts since this morning, and it will only get worse."

"And that's just with the video that was posted online; who knows what is going to happen when the actual charges are released to the public," Maddy said. As Edwin watched this play out before him, certain things were coming together, but Edwin wasn't sure if he was right.

"I'm sorry," Crystal said softly. "That was a really bad time for me. It was like I was a different person."

"I'm sure you were," Maddy said as if she didn't believe her. "Either way, we have our team on it and a plane to catch."

"Oh, you're leaving? Where are you going?" Crystal asked, and her parents looked at her like she was stupid or crazy.

"That 'we' very much included you, Crystal," Maddy said. "Go get your documents and pack some things that can't be purchased when we get to the States. We need to present a united front as a family if we're going to pull this out of the tailspin we're currently in, and we need to get you away from anyone who might decide to try and question you about this." Crystal glanced over her shoulder at Edwin and Charles, looking upset.

"But, my life is here--"

"You should have thought of that before 'becoming a different person' or whatever excuse you're making." Seth turned on his phone and began to talk to someone on the other line. Maddy practically pushed Crystal into her room, and in what felt like seconds, Crystal emerged with a small bag that probably contained the same essentials she had once traveled to Port Townsend.

"Mom, I promise I'll be downstairs in just a minute, but I have to take care of a few things here," Crystal said. Maddy looked like she didn't believe her, but her parents were out the door and gone as quickly as they arrived. Edwin emerged from the corner he was hiding behind with Charles as Crystal threw her arms around them and held them tightly. "I'm sorry; I know you need me right now, but I have to go. I'm so sorry."

"You just yelled at us about not apologizing, mate. The same goes for you," Charles replied. “This way, we know you'll be safe, and no one can get to you."

"Yeah, this seems like the opposite of what your stalker would want: me somewhere even safer," Crystal said.

"Please tell Niko your new location so we can find you," Edwin said. Crystal nodded and looked like she wanted to say more, but her phone went off again. She swore under her breath, kissed each of them on the cheek, and raced out the door. The lock felt like it echoed in a flat that usually housed two of the people who meant the most to them. There was no reason to stay, so they wordlessly returned to the office.

"Crystal was right," Charles said as he collapsed on the couch. "She's probably safer with her parent's crazy security than she would be with us. This guy failed." Edwin wanted to agree but looked around the office and realized they were alone. Niko and Crystal were safe, but geographically, they would be in opposite corners of the world. Jenny was nearby but wanted nothing to do with them, and if the unanswered letters were anything to go by, Thomas was not in a forgiving mood.

The mail was on the desk, but an unfamiliar letter was sitting on top. Charles must have noticed something was off and walked over to stand next to Edwin. They looked at each other and then at the letter.

"It could be someone asking for help, and we just didn't notice it," Charles said, but Edwin could tell he was trying to convince himself of the lie. Edwin said nothing as he carefully opened the letter and pulled out the single piece of paper with two words written on it: totius solus. "What does that mean?" Charles asked.

"It's Latin, and it roughly translates to 'all alone,'" Edwin replied as all of the terrible pieces fell flawlessly into place, even as Edwin desperately wished he was wrong. Somewhere, the spider giggled, and he could feel it getting closer. "I don't think the point of all this was to hurt the people we care about, Charles. He was trying to isolate us from anyone who could help us when he decides to strike again. As the letter says, everyone is gone, and we are 'all alone' with no one to help us. He got exactly what he wanted, and not only that, if this letter was not delivered by the post, and I don't think it was, he not only knows where the office is, but he got past our wards and protection spells without issue. We have nowhere safe to run and no one nearby to turn to."

When Charles was twelve, he saved every penny and pound he could for weeks until he had enough for a doorknob with a lock. There was only one way in and one way out to his basement room, and in his mind, after another beating from his father, if there was a lock on the door, then his father couldn't get to him. Maybe the lock would force his father to calm down and rethink taking a belt to his son. So Charles secretly bought the doorknob, knicked a screwdriver from the garage, and installed it overnight. He kept the old lock in a drawer and slept better than he had in months, maybe even years.

It was short-lived. It was the summer holidays, so there wasn't anywhere for Charles to hide, not really, and his father was more astute than Charles gave him credit for. When Charles could see him getting angry, he locked the door and ran down to his room. The sound his father made when he found the locked door was one that would haunt Charles's nightmares for not only his life but well into his afterlife as well. He screamed and screamed that Charles better "unlock this fucking door before he really loses his temper." Those were the words that scared Charles enough to run up and unlock the door.

It flew open hard enough that Charles stumbled and fell backward. The stairs were carpeted, but they still hurt, and for a moment, he swore he had seen stars. It seemed that forcing his son to fall down a flight of stairs was not enough for Charles's father that night. For the first time, he didn't use the belt; he used his fists, and for the first time, Charles thought his dad might kill him. Charles's ears were ringing by the time the beating ended, but his father was still talking.

"You want a lock on the door? Let's see how much you like a lock on the door," he said. Charles didn't understand what those words meant and knew better than to try and get up when his father was in a rage like this. So he didn't register the sound of a doorknob being changed until it was too late, and the door to the basement slammed shut. The time, instead of the lock being on his side of the door to keep the monster out, the lock was on the other side, and it locked Charles in. He banged on the door for hours and called out to his mom, his dad, or anyone to let him out, but no one came. Charles heard his parents moving around the house, but his mother didn't attempt to open the locked door.

The day ended and turned into night, and no one came near the door to try to open it. Charles's fist had split open from trying to punch the door, but nothing worked. It was like the lock rendered him invisible. When he heard his parents go to bed, that was when the panic set in. He hadn't eaten since the night before, and only a stale glass of water was left, and it was only half full. There wasn't a bathroom down here and no windows he could attempt to open to try and call for help. Charles collapsed to the ground, hugged his knees to his chest, and had what he later found out was a panic attack that felt like it lasted for hours.

Once Charles felt like he could breathe again, he did the only thing he could do and tried to figure out if he could unlock the door from this side. There was a keyhole, but the key was upstairs with his father. Somehow, there were some hairpins from his mother that had made it into a pair of trousers that he kept forgetting to bring upstairs to be washed. Never before had Charles been more thankful about his own forgetfulness. He could feel every bruise and could taste the blood in his mouth from the beating, but Charles sat down and began to work on picking the lock.

Eventually, after the sun started to come back up and he could hear his parents moving around again, Charles waited to see if the door would open. When the morning turned into the afternoon, and he had been awake for a full day, Charles walked back down to his bedroom and slept. When he woke up, there was a bucket, a glass of water, and some cold beans and toast. It appeared that his punishment would be ongoing. Charles was ravenous, but he only ate half of the toast and drank some of the water. He had to use the bucket which was humiliating, but needs must. When Charles tried to work on the lock again, his father wordlessly hit the door so hard that he nearly fell down the stairs again. The message was clear, and Charles went back to his room.

The rest of the day passed, and no one acknowledged his presence, nor did they bring him any more food or water. Once Charles was sure his parents were asleep, he went back to work on getting the door open. It took hours, and his hands shook, but it finally clicked, and Charles breathed fresh air. He collapsed on the kitchen floor and lay there on the cool linoleum for what felt like a long time before realizing he didn't have a plan beyond this. Charles didn't have any family nearby he could go to, and if he tried to go to the police, his father would lie and say it was a just punishment for a misbehaving boy. His father stole any significant amount of money that Charles managed to collect, so he had nothing and nowhere to go.

So he did the only thing he could think of. Charles quietly walked back down to his room and got the old doorknob. His hands were shaking, so it took a little while, but he managed to replace the new handle with a lock with the old one that had no lock. Charles walked outside and threw the doorknob into one of the neighbor's bins. His bathroom was in a hall between the kitchen and front door, and it was little more than a toilet, sink, and a tiny shower, but it was his.

When Charles flicked on the light, he didn't recognize the boy who looked back at him in the mirror. Both his eyes were blackened, and the bruises were so bad that they weren't healing yet. There was dried blood under his nose and on his chin from a split lip. Without thinking, Charles poked at the cut on his lip with his tongue, and it split open again, dripping fresh blood down his chin. There appeared to be some dried blood on his temple, and it was in his hair as well. In the harsh light of the bathroom, his hands looked worse. He had cut up and bruised his knuckles trying to get the door open, and they ached.

It was too late to shower, and Charles didn't want to risk waking up his parents in the middle of the night. So he washed the blood from his face and hands, brushed his teeth so that the metallic taste was gone, and tried not to think about how badly his eyes were bruised. There wasn't anything else he could do; there weren't any other options, so Charles turned off the light and walked back into the basement. He closed the door behind him and collapsed onto his bed.

When he woke up the following day, Charles opened the door and exited the basement. Neither of his parents acknowledged what had transpired in the last two days, and that night, Charles took care of the bucket in his room out of fear that it would somehow trigger his father and remind him that Charles should be locked in the basement. No one ever talked about it; they just went on with their lives, but that was the first time Charles remembered feeling truly helpless and alone, his back against the wall, with no options in sight.

The second time, Charles was in an attic. He was wrapped in a moth-eaten blanket, so cold that he wasn't even shivering anymore, and nursing some terrible bruises that were making it hard to breathe. The feeling faded as a boy walked into the room and handed Charles a lantern.

When Edwin told him that their stalker had not only accomplished what he believed to be his intended goal of making sure they didn't have anyone nearby that could help, but he also got by their wards and a locked door, that was the third time. Edwin was talking, but Charles couldn't hear the words. There was just a ringing in his ears, like when his father would get in a good shot on his head or when one of the rocks from his friend grazed his temple or when some poltergeist decided throwing him into a fucking wall was the way to go. Charles stumbled back until he hit the wall and slowly slid to the floor. The case board, which had all the cases they thought were associated with their stalker, looked back at him, but he couldn't hear or see anything else.

Suddenly, Edwin was in front of him. He was so close that he took up all of Charles's vision, and it was like he was the only thing Charles could see. His mouth was moving, so he could tell that Edwin was talking, but the words weren't making sense. Charles didn't mean to flinch when Edwin's cupped his cheeks, but Edwin didn't seem to hold it against him. Suddenly, Edwin was even closer, practically in Charles's lap, and they were forehead to forehead with almost no space between them.

"Come back to me" were the first words Charles could process. "Come back to me. I know this is the worst possible scenario for you. I know you think you didn't protect us, but I need you to come back to me. I need you; I can't do this without you." Charles blinked, and everything started to come back into focus. He hadn't even realized that he was balling Edwin's shirt in his fists. "There you are," Edwin whispered, but he didn't move away, and Charles made no effort to let him go.

The feeling of helplessness was crushing, making Charles feel like he would miss an opportunity if he didn't take it. He realized that the opportunity he was terrified he wouldn't get the chance to take was closing the minuscule distance between them and kissing his partner, the other half of his soul, which was the regret Charles would have if his afterlife ended right now. This wasn't the time because he was trembling and could feel Edwin shaking just as much as he was. The office wasn't safe, not anymore, and getting Edwin somewhere safe had to be the first priority.

"I'm okay," Charles whispered and lied through his goddamn teeth. Edwin didn't look like he believed him either, but he sat back just a little, and Charles released his death grip on Edwin's clothing. Edwin let his hands drop, making it easy for them to tangle their fingers together. There had to be a point of contact.

"If the office is compromised, we must assume that Crystal and Niko's flat is as well," Edwin said.

"Whoever this is, they are determined, so I'm not sure one new home base will be enough. We have to keep moving to different locations all the time so he doesn't know where we are," Charles said. "And we can't involve the girls. We're clearly the targets, but he's largely left them alone, physically. I'm not willing to risk their safety."

"Me neither, which I believe is exactly what he wants. He knows that we won't risk our friends and allies' safety for our own benefit, which leaves us against him without anyone to help." Edwin hesitated, and Charles squeezed his fingers because he could tell Edwin was struggling with something. "The Night Nurse." Even saying her name made Charles want to panic again, and Edwin looked like he wasn't much better. "I am concerned that if we go to her for help, she will simply write us off as more trouble than we're worth, and the deal will be forfeit."

"We are not involving her," Charles snapped, and Edwin looked a little surprised at how definitive he sounded. "She is the thing standing between you and hell, and I will not fucking compromise on that. Nothing will compromise anything that keeps you out of there, I won't do it, I won't allow it." Charles wasn't sure why Edwin looked so surprised that he wasn't willing to test the waters of their working relationship with the Lost and Found Department. He had to know that keeping Edwin safe was the most important thing coming out of that deal. Charles didn't care where he ended up; it could not be rescinded because he refused to allow Edwin to end up back there again.

"So we cannot go to her for help, but we also cannot fall behind on quotas, or she might rescind the deal," Edwin said carefully.

"We can use the circumstances to our advantage," Charles said. "Niko and Crystal are gone for very real reasons that we can prove. We can use that as leverage to extend our deadlines or maybe even justify some sort of break. We don't tell her about the bloody stalker, but we don't have the quotas looming over our heads either."

"Okay, let's get everything we could need from the office, and I will use the contact spell that she told us not to use," Edwin replied. It took more effort than it probably should have for Charles to get on his feet and pack everything up. Edwin was handing him book after book to add to his backpack as Charles dug into every corner he could find to try and get any weapon possible. This appeared to be some magic user, but that didn't mean anything, and what was the bloody point of mastering this backpack if he didn't have everything? When they could easily go to and from the office, it was one thing, but this was very different.

Edwin handed him one last book and flipped through his notebook to a specific page. Charles tried to remind himself that they weren't lying to her as much as they were withholding aspects of the situation, but he wasn't sure how blurry transdimensional beings let the line get. Edwin finished the spell, and within moments, the Night Nurse appeared in front of them in a puff of smoke. Charles still hated how Edwin flinched every single time she showed up, and there wasn't any hiding how he jumped a little each time.

"I believe I told you boys that the spell was given to you but not to be used," the Night Nurse said.

"These are special circumstances," Edwin said, and she raised an eyebrow.

"Niko and Crystal have both been called to different corners of the world for personal matters," Charles explained because while Edwin might be the brains of this organization, he was a shit liar. Charles knew all about telling half-truths to people with power over him that could potentially make things very painful for him. "So we're working at half capacity, so you can't expect us to meet the same quotas without help."

"You often give us complicated cases that require Crystal's powers, and everything on our desk would be solved much faster and smoother with her involvement," Edwin continued.

"So what exactly are you boys asking for?" the Night Nurse asked.

"We can't meet the deadlines, and we'd be extremely ineffective without Crystal here, so we're requesting that we suspend our quotas and deadlines until at least Crystal comes back," Charles said. She stared at him, and he did not look away from her gaze for a second. She did not like him at all and seemed to hold the whole thing with Angie against him even as time marched on and they solved cases. The other problem with being out of time was it gave people all the time in the world to hold a grudge. The Night Nurse glanced at Edwin and narrowed her eyes, but she eventually sighed heavily.

"Fine, but only until the psychic comes back. Once she's back, I expect you boys to be working overtime to try and make up for all of this lost productivity," she said, and she didn't wait for them to even agree to those terms; she just vanished. Charles released a breath he did not know he was holding and didn't even need to do it because he didn't need to breathe, but it settled his nerves just a little. Their pile of problems was far from solved, but knowing that the Lost and Found Department wouldn't turn on them while dealing with this stalker was one less thing to deal with.

Edwin was still safe from hell. He was safe. That was all that mattered.

"We should not linger here," Edwin said softly. Charles knew what he meant; the office wasn't safe, and they probably should have left already. That feeling of being backed into a corner with nowhere to go threatened to overwhelm him, but Edwin reached out and took his hand. The touch was enough to ground him, and Charles wordlessly followed Edwin through the mirror. If anyone could figure out somewhere safe, it was Edwin, and maybe the feeling of being locked in the basement would go away, too.

+++

Charles knew that Edwin was trying to figure out a safe place for them to hide for a couple of hours, but there were only so many options. They couldn't go somewhere familiar because their stalker probably knew most of their favorite haunts. They couldn't go somewhere that had other ghosts wandering around because there was a chance that the stalker could attack them and someone else could get caught in the crossfire. Some people were already caught in this mess; they couldn't let anyone else get pulled in.

They mirror-hopped a few times until they landed in North London near a flat they had exorcised a few years ago. Charles knew that Edwin was working under the assumption that their stalker knew their entire case history, so that wasn't an option, but a cafe was being renovated down the road. There was an attic where storage was being kept, and while it wasn't great, it was probably the best they would get for now. Edwin started to put up any protection spells he could while Charles did his best to line any possible entrances or exits with traps if someone tried to walk in.

When the storage space was as fortified as it could get, they both sat down on the floor. Charles made sure that he was close enough to be practically pressed up against Edwin, but he wasn't about to let him out of his sight for more than a couple of seconds, and the touch was an even better reminder that Edwin was here and fine.

"I wanted to apologize," Charles said.

"What on Earth would you have to apologize for?" Edwin asked.

"I lost it there for a minute, back in the office, and I can't protect you if something like that is happening," Charles replied. Edwin didn't say anything, and when Charles looked at her partner, Edwin was staring at him like he had just said something incredibly stupid. That seemed unfair. He was the brawn, and he couldn't be the brawn if he was curled up on the floor like a child. Edwin reached over and threaded their fingers together.

"Charles, your desire to protect me is one of the things I love about you," Edwin said, and Charles felt his entire world tilt on its axis because this was the first time since hell Edwin had said those words to him. "But it can't come at your expense either. I told you after the confrontation with Thomas that my worst nightmare is standing by and seeing you hurt. We look out for each other, so you have to let me look after you, too."

Charles stared at Edwin and felt utterly lost for words. He remembered sitting in the agency and thinking about how he might not have a second chance. He thought about how he said he had all the time to figure out the rest, but maybe he didn't need that much time because he always had it figured out. Maybe he always knew how he felt about Edwin, but Charles didn't have a way to put it into words. Maybe he'd been in love with Edwin for a very long time, but because nothing changed when Edwin confessed, he thought he didn't feel the same, but now it was apparent.

"I don't like feeling like I don't have anywhere to go or like I don't have anything I can do," Charles managed to say. "He locked me in my room for two days, and when I got out, I had nothing and nowhere to go, so I had to stay. That's why I froze at the office. I felt like I didn't have anywhere to go, I couldn't do anything, and the only thing I could think about was regret." Edwin frowned but squeezed his hand as if to give Charles the strength he needed to continue, and he did need that extra boost. "I was afraid that everything was helpless, that this guy was going to take you away from me, and I was too much of a bloody idiot to see that I didn't need forever to figure it out because I think I've always known exactly how I feel about you." The words were hard to say, and Charles felt like he was stumbling and stuttering over every third word. For some reason, the three words he needed to say got stuck in his throat, and he hoped that this was one of those times that Edwin knew what he meant even if he wasn't saying it.

For a moment, Edwin looked utterly shocked, and Charles wondered if his horrible timing was that bad and if Edwin would allow him to take the words back until it was a better time. Then the shock was gone as fast as it appeared; Edwin leaned forward and pressed their lips together, easy as the breathing they didn't need to do and like they'd been doing it for decades. It was seamless, without a hint of hesitation, and it was the best kiss of Charles's entire life because he could feel Edwin's lips against his. As quick as it started, the kiss ended, but they stayed close with their foreheads pressed together.

"Charles Rowland, your timing is terrible," Edwin said, and it broke the tension in the room. They both laughed softly but didn't move away from each other.

"I know, but I thought on the office floor after I completed wigged out was worse," Charles replied. The timing thing was certainly a problem because there wasn't a couch for them to lie down on, so they had to make do with the dusty floor. It wasn't like it made a difference to them one way or another. It took a little rearranging, but they eventually laid down on their sides, facing each other, with their legs tangled just a little.

There was just enough space between them that Charles could stare at Edwin and wonder what he did to deserve this, to deserve him. He knew if he voiced that, Edwin would admonish him, so Charles kept his thoughts to himself and enjoyed the small bubble they managed to create for themselves. Their stalker was still out there; they still didn't have anywhere to go and no help, but now, Charles got to exchange slow kisses with his partner of almost forty years. It helped ease some of that feeling, like the glow of a lantern in an attic.

The next 48 hours were a strange juxtaposition for Charles. On the one hand, it felt like they were running for their afterlives, and nowhere they went safe. They also had no clues to help because whoever this person was, he was very good at leaving nothing substantial behind. On the other hand, Charles learned what Edwin was like when he knew he was loved romantically, which made him glow. Charles always thought his friend was a bit ethereal and had from the moment they met in that attic. Now, he was so otherwordly in a way he hadn't been before. Charles knew his perception had changed, but it was still distracting.

On day one, they found a new corner to hide in. The restaurant had burned down the month before, but the kitchen area was still secure with doors that could lock, and just off of the kitchen was a manager's office that wasn't that damaged aside from some smoke damage. It had no windows; there was another locked door between them and their stalker and a desk where they could lay everything out fairly safely. So, they tried to find a pattern among damaged office materials and ash.

"The rune in Tokyo seemed to indicate that he was trying to summon someone from the afterlife, but the rune was different from any other time I've seen someone trying to summon someone from beyond," Edwin explained. Earlier that day, he had found what he thought was the initial rune that the stalker had modified in Tokyo, but it wasn't anything they had seen before. "This is old magic, dangerous magic, and it isn't just used to call a demon. It binds the demon to the person that has summoned them."

"So this guy is not only trying to drag someone away from their afterlife, but he wants them to stay here too," Charles replied.

"Yes, it appears so, and the spell is very nasty. If it backfired, it could easily destroy the soul entirely or bind some misshapen form of the soul. It could come out wrong, and then we'd be dealing with something else entirely." Edwin said as he looked at the rune some more. Charles could tell that he was thinking of something but couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Could that be what this asshole is trying to do? Drag a soul back from the afterlife as some mutated thing and then use it for evil purposes?" As soon as he said it out loud, the theory didn't quite ring true. They were still missing something, and neither could figure out what it was. Edwin spent a decent portion of the day trying to remember the modified rune now that he had a base to work off of, while Charles outfitted some more weapons with spells and other small things that could help protect them from magic. The "old magic" thing bothered him, and Charles wasn't sure if any protection spells or wards they knew could go against something that old.

Edwin was starting to get that look that only came when he was getting angry and frustrated with his inability to figure something out. Previously, Charles would distract Edwin by insisting they leave the office to go somewhere, insisting on a sparing lesson, or asking Edwin to read to him because he was bored [he wasn't]. Now, Charles had a new way of distracting Edwin when he was getting too lost in his own head. It still felt a little surreal that he could walk up to his best friend, gently turn him away from the work he was trying to do, and kiss him.

Charles liked to think they got the hang of kissing fast because this was only the second day, and even more so now, it felt like they'd always been doing this. It was like this aspect of their relationship had always been there, even though it was brand new. Edwin seemed keen on being distracted, and unlike other times when Charles attempted this move with other options, Edwin didn't fight this one. Charles nearly lost the plot when Edwin got his fingers into Charles's hair and pulled just slightly, and that was all the motivation he needed to bite Edwin's lower lip and slip his tongue into his mouth.

They hadn't kissed like this yet, but Charles never would have thought Edwin was a novice because he took to it like he took to everything that wasn't combat: flawlessly. There wasn't any space between them, and while touch felt different from other ghosts, it was still enough for him to feel every inch of Edwin pressing against him. Charles wasn't sure which of them broke the kiss, but they both managed to break away, breathing hard just because of the reflex but staying close. The way they were wrapped up together reminded Charles of slow-dancing couples.

"I must commend you on how effective that distraction move was," Edwin said.

"Yeah? Might become my new go-to then," Charles replied, and he grinned when Edwin rolled his eyes. There was only one chair in the corner of the office that was likely used for breaks, but it was hardly big enough for the two of them. Edwin didn't fight it when Charles took his hands and began to walk backward to the chair. He had every intention of sitting down and having Edwin in his lap, but as usual, Edwin was one step ahead of him. Just as he was about to sit down, Edwin shifted so he was the one sitting in the chairs, and Charles was on his lap. His knees were framing Edwin's hips, and he loved Edwin's smug little smile at that moment, as if being in Edwin's lap was somehow a hardship.

The chair wasn't exactly ideal, but the two locked doors made Charles think that if they were going to have a chance to take their relationship to the next level, it would be here. The position they were sitting in on the chair also seemed to indicate that, but Edwin apparently had other ideas.

"You're precious to me, Charles, and it's bad enough that this stalker made the circumstances surrounding your confession less than ideal; I won't let him take anything else away from you. You deserve to be treasured, and I intend to do that somewhere that isn't a burnt-out office and a chair we can both barely fit on." Edwin's words were like a gut punch that Charles didn't know how to react to. He knew that Edwin loved him, he believed it with his entire soul, but hearing that words "precious" associated with himself was going to take some time to get used to.

"All right, you derailed my plans, then why are we sitting like this?" Charles asked, and the look Edwin gave him was damn near devious.

"For things like this and plenty more." Edwin hooked a finger in his gold chain and pulled Charles down into a kiss. This was certainly one way to pass a little time while running for their lives. It became a bit of a pattern as they jumped from one location to the other, and after 48 hours, everything was messing with him. If the juxtaposition impacted Edwin, he wasn't showing it.

They were set up at another location, the backroom of a school not far from one of the locations where they had recently dealt with a poltergeist when Edwin seemed to notice something.

"Do you remember when Crystal suggested that our stalker and the person who is moving the ghosts could be one and the same?" Edwin asked, and Charles nodded. "If you break down both of the spells to their bare bones, they are similar. An artist might create two completely different paintings, but the nuances of their work are present in both. The bones of both of these spells are the same."

"So Crystal was right; they are the same guy, but what does it mean? You said neither of these runes would work on us. We're not souls that can be called back from the afterlife and bound to this asshole, and we're not spirits tethered to a location that can be forcefully removed and relocated. Neither of these spells can affect us in any way," Charles said.

"And he didn't hide these spells either, so like the message he left in the office and the two iron attacks, he's trying to tell us something," Edwin finished.

"What's the fucking point of a cryptic message if we can't solve it?" Charles knew that Edwin didn't know that answer any more than he did, but saying it out loud still felt necessary for their sanity. They couldn't run forever, and if Crystal returned before they solved this, the Night Nurse would insist they return to working cases, making them vulnerable. They were running out of time, and now they needed to go back to the office to get everything on the case of the migrating ghosts because it was related. The spell that moved the ghosts was drawn in Edwin's notebook, but they needed all the information, and Charles tried to ignore the pit in his stomach that said going back to the office was a terrible idea.

+++

Charles insisted on being the first one through the mirror back to the office, and Edwin eventually conceded defeat on the matter because he wouldn't let this one go. Everything looked the same when he entered the mirror, but Charles still felt on edge. Edwin followed behind a few moments later, and they began to gather all of the case files on the moving ghosts when there was a knock on their door. Charles nearly jumped out of his own skin. He glanced at his partner; there was a chance that this was just a normal client with excellent timing or their stalker was standing outside their door. However, their stalker could get in the office already, and they hadn't modified anything, so if it was him, he could have been waiting to get the drop on them.

The person on the other side of the door knocked again, and it appeared that they weren't going away. Edwin walked a little closer to the door as Charles clenched his bat tightly in his hand. "I'm afraid we aren't taking any clients at this time," Edwin called out.

"I'm not really a client," the person on the other side of the door said. It sounded like a woman, maybe someone around their age, which did not fit the profile of their stalker at all.

"I will need you to elaborate on that," Edwin replied. For what felt like a long time, there wasn't any sound on the other side of their door. For a moment, Charles thought they had gotten lucky, and this woman had left.

"Please," she whispered, sounding terrified and upset. If she was faking, she was an excellent actor. "Please, he's terrifying; we need help." Charles had another silent conversation with his partner. There was a chance that the "he" she was talking about was not their stalker, but considering everything that had happened, there was a good chance he was, and this was some sort of message. They had nothing to go on and needed clues, so they had no other option besides letting this woman in.

"I wouldn't recommend coming in here intending to hurt us. It wouldn't end well for you," Charles said.

"I mean no harm, I have no way of doing any harm, please, just open the door," she said. She was begging now, and Charles didn't want to do this, but they had no other choice. He gestured for Edwin to stay behind him, which Edwin gave him a decidedly bitchy look about like Charles was going to let him be in the line of fire, and opened the door. The woman on the other side looked a little older than them. She was dressed in clothing from the 1960s, and her sunken appearance seemed to indicate that she might have been some sort of addict when she was alive and did not know how to alter her appearance in death. She eyed Charles's bat but walked through the doors with her hands up, and they were shaking. She only got two steps into the office before Charles told her to stop.

"You seem to know who we are, so would you mind telling us why you are here when the sign on the door says closed?" Edwin asked.

"I'm Daisy," she whispered. "Two days ago, a man appeared in our neighborhood, and then another ghost appeared as well. It wasn't anyone local who had died; no one had ever seen him before, so we don't know why he suddenly appeared. The ghost started screaming and began to destroy the building he was in. There weren't any people there, but he was doing damage. I was watching him when the first man grabbed my arm." Daisy began to tremble harder but didn't put her hands down either. "I didn't even know he could see me, but he told me I needed to come here and tell you to come to the address where the ghost was. He had a ring on that burned, and I saw him do magic, so I did what he said."

"What were his exact words?" Charles asked.

"He said, "Tell the boys to come to this address and that I have a present waiting for them," but that was it. He didn't say anything else," Daisy replied.

"What did he look like?" Edwin asked because they didn't even have a solid description of this man. Charles assumed that Daisy would tell them that his face was smudged in her memories like anyone else who had seen him, but that didn't appear to be the case.

"White man who looked rather posh, maybe mid-forties to early fifties. His hair was pure white, though; I remember that being something I've never seen before," she said. "He was dressed in what looked like a funeral suit, and he was alive; I could tell he was alive, but nothing else. Please believe me when I say I'm just here to give you that address and nothing more." It was clear that Daisy thought they would turn on her at any given moment, and Charles wasn't thrilled with the idea that she was about to tell anyone who would listen about her experience with the Dead Boy Detectives. Ghosts were insidious gossips for lack of anything better to do half the time so word would get out. He couldn't risk being kind to her right now, though, not with Edwin on the line, so they would have to take the hit to their reputation.

Edwin finished taking notes and nodded slightly to Charles. He didn't quite lower his bat, but he put it down just enough as a gesture that he wasn't about to attack her. "Thank you for your help, and for what it's worth, we're sorry you got caught up in our mess." Daisy didn't look like she believed him, but she turned and fled as fast as she could. Charles wasted no time closing the door to the office and locking it tight.

"The word "present" sounds like something a serial killer would say," Edwin said once it was clear that Daisy was gone. "But, we have nothing else, and while this screams that this is a trap, there is another poltergeist, and we still don't know the name of the woman who can also banish them. So either way, we are needed." Edwin's sense of justice was one of the things that Charles loved about him, but right now, he wished it was a little less strong because he didn't want to see what a "present" from their stalker would be.

"The last time he left a present for us, I got thrown into a wall full of iron nails," Charles muttered. "But, it sounds like this ghost went poltergeist almost immediately, and that's not good, so I get it; we have to go, but that doesn't mean I like it because this does scream "trap," practically at the top of its lungs." Edwin walked forward and squeezed Charles's upper arms. He said nothing, but Charles got the message loud and clear. They had an address to get to, and they had to face whatever was there. They couldn't keep running forever.

+++

The address Daisy gave them looked like something a poltergeist would be haunting. The building was abandoned, with condemned signs everywhere, and it looked like the doors had previously been nailed shut. Right now, the front door was wide open, which set Charles on edge. It was the final confirmation that the stalker was someone who couldn't phase through a door, and he wasn't sure if that made everything better or worse. Charles glanced at Edwin, who looked just as worried as he did. They had no idea what was behind that door, but it was quiet, at least for now.

Edwin looked annoyed when Charles insisted on going first, but he let Edwin check to ensure there wasn't anything on the doors that would keep them from leaving. As far as they could tell, there wasn't anything there. They walked into a large, open room, and, for some reason, Charles wasn't expecting to see what was in front of him: their stalker standing at the other end of the room. He didn't look worried to see them and didn't look particularly familiar. So, this wasn't someone they had interacted with directly, which made this all the more confusing. Charles glanced at Edwin, but he didn't look any more enlightened than he did.

"Good evening, boys. It's nice to see you in person again," he said with an eerie smile. He didn't look dangerous, but Charles remembered getting hit over the head with iron, so looks could be deceiving.

"It seems you are very aware of who we are, but I don't believe we've met," Edwin said, which made him smile even more, as it amused him that they hadn't met before now.

"I do know a lot about you both, Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, because you have wronged me in a truly terrible way. You ruined my life and took everything from me, so I'm in the process of taking everything from both of you. The name I'll give you is Quentin, but we're not here to talk about me, not right now," Quentin said. "I believe my friend told you I have a gift waiting for you here. I do hope you enjoy it." Quentin was staring at Charles when he said those words, and apparently, this man came with dramatic timing as well because the poltergeist screamed so loud that the walls rattled. Quentin stepped aside as the ghost began to emerge from the shadows.

For a moment, Charles was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. There wasn't any other possible explanation for what was appearing before him. Paul Rowland might have aged considerably in nearly forty years but looked just as mean. There was a manic look in his eye that Charles only saw when his father was truly furious. He only saw that look once, right before he got sent to St. Hilarion, when his father beat him so badly his mother could no longer stand idly by and had to take him to the emergency room. She lied and said he was jumped, and not long after, he got sent away. The version of his father lumbering toward them in the form of a poltergeist looked like the version that nearly fractured Charles's skull with his bare hands.

"I suppose this is more of a gift for you, Charles," Quentin said. "It's so interesting what you can learn when you go and talk to elderly pensioners who are still around neighborhoods. They'll mention things like how that Rowland boy used to walk around all bloody and bruised, that there were rumors about Paul, but Mary wouldn't leave him. It seems that old age was taking its time getting your father off of this mortal coil, so I decided to help him along, and then I made sure that he knew that you were the reason he died. He's not pleased, so I've given him the tools to make sure he can let you know exactly how he feels." Quentin turned and walked out of the room as his father leaned down and picked up what appeared to be a large iron pipe with some handle to protect his hand from being burned.

"Charles, is that your father?" Edwin asked, and Charles hated that he hadn't told Edwin that his parents were still alive because maybe this could have been avoided somehow. He didn't know how, but Charles couldn't exactly form coherent thoughts right now. His father didn't give him time to collect himself as his rage consumed him. He rushed them so fast that Charles barely had enough time to block the iron with his cricket bat.

"Boy, I thought I saw the last of you a long time ago," his father snarled as he viciously tried to bash Charles's head in with the iron pipe. It took all of his concentration to keep his father back, so he had no idea what Edwin was doing. He hoped that Edwin was going after Quentin so they could get some answers.

"Dad, I had nothing to do with Quentin killing you," Charles tried to argue, but there wasn't any arguing with his father when he was alive, let alone when he was dead.

"Oh really, boy? Because it sounds like if you'd just gone away when you fucking died, we wouldn't be here," he yelled. Vaguely, Charles heard a spell from Edwin go off, and his father stumbled, but Charles was too busy being struck dumb to take advantage of the opening. He lashed out at both of them, and Charles was suddenly airborne as he was thrown into a wall. He could see that Edwin was also thrown in another direction, and his father was looking between them as if he was trying to decide which one of them he was going to go after.

That was not acceptable. Charles scrambled to his feet and rushed his father, who didn't seem to have a care in the world. Charles hadn't seen a poltergeist this strong in a very long time, but he noticed that there were some symbols drawn onto the iron rod. It made sense, considering they knew that Quentin seemed to be some sort of magic user.

"Edwin, the iron is--" Charles didn't get the chance to finish because his father was too fast, faster than he was expecting, and trying to tell Edwin about the symbols distracted him, and the iron slammed into his ribs. It felt like what Charles imagined getting hit by a car would feel like; the burning was so severe he thought he might be melting into nothingness, and the pain from the iron was unlike anything he had ever felt. Dying didn't hurt as much as this did; getting nearly beaten to death by his father as a kid didn't hurt like this; getting thrown down the stairs because he wanted a lock on his door didn't fucking hurt like this.

His father was a bruiser who got his knuckles bloody at pubs and back alleys. So, while Charles was stunned by the blow, his father took him by the coat and yanked him forward until they were nearly nose to nose.

"I saw the way you looked at that other boy," his father whispered. Edwin was trying to get over to them, but a sharp look was all it took to send him back even further. Edwin was trying to get to his feet when Quentin reappeared with that iron chain in his hands. Edwin tried to fight back with the magic he could without any books, but Quentin was clearly better. His clothes were singed from fire, and he was pale, but Edwin had the iron around his neck. Charles briefly met Quentin's eyes, smirking like this was where he wanted all of them to be.

"I knew what you were the moment you got that fucking earring, and I should have finished the job back then," his father continued. "He said that you two don't want to move on. Is he the reason you're still here? Is he the reason that I'm dead?" Edwin was the reason that Charles didn't want to move on. If he hadn't been there that night, Charles would have died alone and gone with Death when the time came. He wasn't alone that night, and he went with Edwin.

"Dad," Charles managed to say because he hated that look in his father's eyes. It promised retribution, it promised violence, and it was a look he was all too familiar with. "That guy, Quentin, is the one that killed you. He's the one that took you and brought you here so you couldn't move on. He's using you, but we can help you move on. We can figure something out, just don't hurt--" Charles cut himself off because asking for himself to be spared pain would do fuck all; if his father could beat him as a kid, this elderly poltergeist version certainly could. If he mentioned Edwin's safety, then all that anger would be redirected at his partner, and Charles couldn't watch Edwin get hurt again. He couldn't listen to Edwin screaming in pain because he was helpless on Esther's floor with no way to help--backed into a corner with nowhere to go and no one to help.

His father might have been a bruiser, but he was not a stupid man, and Charles was never any good at hiding his thoughts when he was in pain. So he knew how that sentence would end and looked amused by it. "He told me everything; I was terminally ill, so I was going to die anyway. This is just retribution for ruining my life. If you hadn't been born, I wouldn't have had to stay with your mother; I wouldn't have had to work shit jobs for shit pay, if you weren't born, I would have been better off, and you know I hated, hate, you for it."

Charles knew everything about them heightened when a ghost became a poltergeist, and their emotions grew. He also knew that those emotions didn't form out of nothingness; they were based on feelings and thoughts that were already there when the person died, so Charles knew his dad wasn't lying. Charles didn't know what he would say next, what he could do or say, but his father suddenly released his jacket. It threw him off balance, the pain from the iron in his side still blinding; his father smashed the iron bar into his shin. Charles dropped to the ground and couldn't contain his scream. Vaguely, he could hear Edwin yelling something, but Charles couldn't make out the words.

Then, one of his worst nightmares, the one Charles thought would be his version of hell if he ever got sent there, started to play out in front of him. He couldn't move or get up, but his father was advancing on Edwin with a weapon in hand and violent intentions. Once his father was close, Quentin said something and released the iron chain around Edwin's neck. His best friend was clever, but he wasn't fast enough to get away from his father. Charles was using every bit of strength he had left to try and pull himself closer to Edwin so he could try and help, and it was made somehow worse when Edwin didn't scream when the iron bar hit his shoulder.

That lack of reaction made his father even angrier, and he swung the bar at Edwin wildly. He was scrambling to get away, backing up to where Charles was, but them being closer wasn't going to make his father stop. He would have to watch his father get his hands on the person he loved more than anything in the world. Edwin was closer now, close enough that Charles could see the ugly burn on his neck and the wound left on his arm. Charles was about to try and see if he could stand up and maybe give Edwin the time he needed to get them some temporary reprieve so they could get the fuck out of there when the door opened.

It didn't get kicked open or thrown open like in some dramatic movie. It just casually opened like someone was coming home. That seemed to startle all three of them enough that they just stared. A woman with brown hair and a white coat walked into the room with an air of confidence that Charles rarely saw in other people. She smiled, and that smile was enough to make his father take a step back. Charles had no idea what was happening, but one moment, her hands were in her pockets, and the next, she was moving and saying something that felt like magic. He hadn't ever seen his father turn tail and run, but whatever she was saying was enough to make him do that.

"I'm not done with you, boy," his father yelled. The woman twisted her hand, and suddenly, his father could no longer hold the iron. He didn't stop to try and pick it up again; he just vanished. There was a beat of silence before Edwin dropped to the floor next to Charles, his hands reaching for the wounds.

"Dead Boy Detectives, you seem to have gotten yourselves into a nasty bit of trouble," she said as she looked at them. "I'm Johanna Constantine. Let's get out of here and have a chat before he comes back." Johanna walked over and picked up the iron rod as Charles glanced at Edwin, but they didn't have any other options. They leaned heavily against each other as Johanna held the door open as if they couldn't phase through it. She did something complicated to the door that Edwin seemed to recognize but gestured for them to follow her. For lack of any other options, they did precisely that.

+++

Charles thought that Johanna would take them somewhere close by, but it appeared that she had a destination in mind and that they should follow her. She was a few steps ahead of them, twirling the enchanted iron in her hand, but glanced over her shoulder once to ensure they were still there. The iron burns were starting to heal, and Charles could walk more with each step, but it still hurt more than anything he had experienced so far.

"Please tell me you're all right," Edwin said once they were out of the house and a decent distance away.

"I'll be aces eventually," Charles replied, which was about as accurate an answer as he could think of. He also knew his partner better than anyone else in the world, so he could tell when Edwin was trying to hold back from asking questions. "You can ask," he said.

"I didn't know he was alive," Edwin said. "If I had known, I would have made his remaining days miserable." He stated this as if it were apparent that was what Edwin would have done.

"That's why I didn't tell you the same way. I'm not telling you where the boys who killed me live either. None of them are worth your time, but I know you still want to ask more. You can ask, Edwin, you can ask me anything."

"It wasn't true," Edwin said after a beat of silence. That wasn't what he thought Edwin would say, so he stared at his friend. "None of those things he said about you are true; none of them even exist within any realm of truth, and I cannot let you think they are for even a moment. A moment is too long because none of it is true." Charles wasn't sure what to say to that because while his instinct was to argue and say that he knew his father wasn't telling the truth, he also knew that Edwin would see through him.

"Does it make me bad if I'm a little happy he's dead?" Charles wasn't sure he even actually spoke the words were soft.

"Nothing you could do will ever make me see you as anything other than the boy I love," Edwin said these romantic and touching things like they weren't rewriting everything Charles knew about his afterlife. If Johanna could hear them, she wouldn't say anything, and after some time, she guided them up to a flat at the top of a building. It looked a lot like their office, only lived in more, with books piled up in corners and strange objects sitting in what appeared to be random order all over the place.

"Have a seat anywhere, boys. I'd say you look dead on your feet, but something tells me that might be in poor taste," Johanna said. They glanced at each other and eventually settled down onto the couch, where Johanna sat in one of the only chairs in the room.

"Why did you help us?" Edwin asked.

"Loaded question, but I suppose I should catch you two up on what I do know," Johanna said with a smile. "I dabble in a little bit of everything supernatural in the city and wherever someone pays me to come and help. It's something of a family tradition, and we keep meticulously annoying and thorough notes. My mother was the one who noticed two teenage ghosts running around London starting in the early 90s and then revealed that they were helping people move on. You weren't hurting anyone, so she just kept an eye on you, and so did I."

"'Kept an eye on?'" Charles said because he didn't like that wording, but Johanna shrugged.

"Exactly what it means: I deal with things that are making a mess, and you two clean up messes, so there's no need for our paths to cross," Johanna explained as she pulled out a notebook with dates and notes about the sudden uptick in unsolved cases in London and the sudden rise of the poltergeists. "I heard through the grapevine that you were abroad, so I did what I could to get those who would listen to me. I'm not good with people, and your Hardy Boys routine isn't really my style. Like I said, I clean up messes, and now it's clear you're at the center of one very big mess. So, now I'm here to help clean it up." Charles glanced at Edwin, who didn't look happy about all of this, but if Johanna was as powerful as she seemed to be alluding that she was, it wasn't like either of them could tell her 'no.'

"I'm Charles Rowland, and this is Edwin Payne since we didn't get to do names and whatnot," Charles said, and Johanna nodded.

"So you believe you can help with the poltergeist? And perhaps with the sorcerer that has some sort of personal vendetta against us?" Edwin asked.

"The poltergeist will be taken care of because it was only there for a few hours before a neighbor hired me to take care of it. So I'll be sending him wherever he needs to go," Johanna said. "As for your little sorcerer problem, he doesn't look familiar, but that doesn't mean anything. I suppose we could work something out. You boys don't work for free, and neither do I."

"And what, pray tell, is your price for helping us?" Edwin asked. Johanna leaned forward, and suddenly, her entire face changed. She looked tired but also drained in a way that Charles only saw from people stretched too thin, and they were about to break.

"I heard you escaped hell, and I know someone down there who doesn't deserve to be there," Johanna said, and Edwin tensed up so much Charles thought he was going to fall over. "I want every single detail about how to get out there. That's my price; I want your roadmap of hell."

When Edwin was alive, he hated running. It was fairly evident from a young age that he wouldn't be the type of boy who would be fairing well at anything athletic, but he was good at his studies and kept to himself, which kept him out of the way of his parents. His mother and father were not terrible people, not the way Charles's father was, as he would later find out, but their marriage wasn't one built out of love but convenience. Edwin could do the math, and he understood at a young age what it meant that his birthday was only seven months after his parent's marriage. Neither of them would talk about it, and Edwin wasn't keen to bring it up either, so he threw himself into his studies and didn't worry about the fact that he couldn't run.

His father had a respectable business, and as the eldest son, he was set to inherit that business when he came of age. His father worked with trains, which always fascinated Edwin. He wanted to go to his father's work so he could look at the engines and see how they worked, but his father only did that once or twice. As soon as he burned his hand while trying to sneak onto a steam engine, his father stopped bringing him anywhere near work. Edwin read all the books he could on the railroad industry in England and America. There wasn't enough time in the day to fill his head with all that knowledge.

As he got older and his mother failed to have more children, Edwin became increasingly aware of the pressure to carry on the family name. His father seemed to believe that he wasn't well-rounded enough, and that was when Edwin realized he was not a runner and did not like it at all. Still, he did his best and pushed through any tightness in his chest or burning muscles when someone would push him too far.

However, as he got older, the world around him didn't feel as stable anymore. He heard whispers of wars and crises happening all over Europe, and people seemed to believe they were on the cusp of something. As if sensing what was coming, his father began to push Edwin to get physically fit when he turned twelve. By the time he was fourteen, he still wasn't a runner, but when word came down about trench warfare, it sounded like running wouldn't save his life anyway.

All the boys at St. Hilarion were eager to join the front lines, and it disturbed Edwin in ways he couldn't put into words. His peers were children, and they were bloodthirsty, eager to get a rifle in their hands and go out onto the battlefield to attain some form of glory that Edwin didn't understand. The school seemed to know, on some level, that once the war began, they were teaching the next generation of soldiers and members of leadership. Suddenly, the fact that Edwin wasn't much of a runner became a point of contention. His peers looked down on him, laughed, and talked about how they would use him as a human shield in the trenches because that was the only way he could be useful in war.

The bullying continued to get worse, and no one seemed to care that it was happening. All of the teachers thought that his tormentors were "toughening him up," and when Edwin mentioned what was happening on a break when he was fifteen, his father said the same thing. No one was there to help, and Edwin was acutely aware that he wasn't fast enough to run away.

He fought for his life the night that his schoolmates decided to sacrifice him to a demon. Edwin pulled on the ropes as hard as possible, and he could feel them cutting into his wrists. He could feel blood on his hands from struggling, but it made no difference. There was no escaping, no running away, and Edwin was dragged to hell because his peers thought occult rituals were the height of comedy.

In hell, Edwin still wasn't a runner, at least, not at first. The demon that he was sacrificed didn't seem to know what to do with him and, eventually, decided that he wasn't worth the effort of torturing for very long. He threw Edwin into the Doll House and said that he should probably start running. Edwin wasn't a runner, but he ran for his life when he saw the spider, but it was futile. It caught him, it hunted him, it tore him apart as slowly as a mindless beast playing with its food could, and then the cycle started again.

Time in hell passed differently, but Edwin had the singular focus of getting out. He refused to let himself rot here when he didn't belong. Hell was for the damned, and Edwin refused to believe a fucking prank damned him. So, he learned to run, and he got faster the more he learned the layout of the Doll House. It was a process that went on for what felt like eons, but he eventually found an exit. It wasn't that easy, of course, it wasn't, because apparently, The Divine Comedy was not a work of fiction, and there were levels of hell. So Edwin learned how to run through the Doll House, then he learned how to run through the various levels of hell, and then he learned how to run up that endless staircase.

He had lost count of how many escape attempts he had, but Edwin was convinced he could get out of there if he ran fast enough and was smarter than that spider. So, hell kept trying to break him, and Edwin refused to break. One day, he got to the top of the staircase and through a door that felt like it weighed tons. He could hear his tormentor behind him, but Edwin was fast now; he knew how to run, so the spider didn't catch him as he slammed the door to hell shut behind him.

It wasn't until later that Edwin realized the irony that the first thing he wanted to do when he escaped hell was run. He'd just spent so much time running; it should have been the last thing he wanted to do, but running would be a fundamental part of his existence now. The spider might be in hell, but it could find him, so he needed to make sure he could run. However, Edwin realized he had escaped hell as a ghost, and that was something that he needed to figure out. So he did in death what he did in life; he read.

As much as Edwin wanted to run as far away from St. Hilarion's as possible, the existence of a book with real sacrificial spells meant that something supernatural was going on there. So he dove into the library and found all sorts of things buried in dark corners. He learned about Death and how she could come and find him and send him back to hell, so that was another thing he needed to run from. Edwin found a notebook and drew up every step and detail from hell that burned into his memory. He started to put together some of the "rules" for being a ghost, and just when he thought he was ready to leave, Edwin looked out into the night and saw a group of boys running after someone else. They sounded like they were on a hunt.

It seemed things had not changed in the decades he spent in hell, but Edwin followed them regardless. They were yelling at someone, and there was a splash. It was winter, and no one should be in the water. There was more yelling, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a boy stumble to one of the closed buildings on campus. Edwin wasn't sure what compelled him to follow this boy, but he lit a lantern and found someone his own age shivering from the cold. When Edwin realized this boy could see him, his first instinct was to run, but he didn't. All of the things he had read said only the dead and the close to dying could see ghosts, which meant this boy was dying.

So, instead of running, Edwin stayed for the first time in what felt like his entire lifetime.

He and Charles would have to run from Death, but Edwin found that he didn't mind running when he was with someone else. It wasn't until Port Townsend and being sent back to the Doll House that Edwin remembered how important it was to run. It was hard to remain still even after Charles pulled him back out of hell. Edwin fought every instinct he had and let himself stay with Charles, with these living girls who were somehow his friends. The relief when the Night Nurse said he didn't need to run anymore was unlike any feeling Edwin had ever felt. He wasn't keen to test that deal by calling on hell or seeing Death, but he didn't need to run, and Edwin was unsure what to do with himself.

Then the stalker appeared, and he took their sense of safety; he took their allies, sent away their friends, killed Charles's father, and turned him into a weapon. Something powerful was chasing him, hunting them, and it was trying to corner him in a maze so it could strike. They couldn't outrun this man; that much was clear, and if revealing how he ran out of hell was the price for Charles's safety, Edwin was willing to pay it.

+++

Johanna Constantine was powerful. Edwin could tell from the moment he met her, but they had no other allies. However, a map out of hell wasn't something he could give to anyone. There were plenty of souls down there that very much needed to stay down there, not to mention the lower demons that could find their way out and into the real world as well. His mind was going in many different directions, and he could feel Charles still trembling from the iron beside him. The burn on his arm still stung, but he knew his pain tolerance was much higher than his partner's.

"Could you give us a tick?" Charles asked.

"Sure," Johanna replied with a shrug. "I'll just head into the other room, but I will request that you don't touch anything. I think you boys know how dangerous objects can be." She stood up and entered another room, closing the door behind her.

"Edwin, are you okay?" Charles asked as soon as she was gone.

"Yes," Edwin replied, and it didn't taste like a lie on his tongue. "And I don't want to leave because I know you'll tell me we can leave. I know we can, but I don't think that we should. We need help, and right now, our options are limited."

"I don't bloody care how backed into a fucking corner we are; if it comes at your expense, we don't do it," Charles said. He was still trembling, and Edwin remembered the words he had heard Paul Rowland say back in that room when Quentin had the iron chain around his neck. Edwin wasn't above hate, not by a long shot, but he didn't think he had hated anyone as much as he hated Charles's father as he spat out that poison. He tried to tell Charles that it wasn't true, but that was a conversation they would have to have another time. So Edwin reached out and entwined his fingers in Charles's and squeezed. It was grounding for him and seemed to be grounding for Charles as well.

"I love you," Edwin said, still slightly surprised at how much easier it was to say those words. "I know you want to protect me, but we can't run from this. Quentin, whoever he is, appears to want revenge, and we know he is willing to kill to accomplish it. Not just in the way he killed your father in cold blood, but the two other people in the car accident and the three men who attacked Jenny. Our usual approach isn't working, and he is still escalating, and I am worried about what the next thing will be. I can't lose you."

"You won't," Charles replied with so much conviction that Edwin really wanted to believe him. He knew what it felt like when the hunter finally caught the prey, and much like Charles wasn't willing to risk Edwin's safety, Edwin wasn't about to let Charles know what that felt like, not if he could help it.

"Miss. Constantine?" Edwin called out, and Johanna returned to the room. She glanced at their hands but didn't say anything about it.

"Call me Johanna. So what's it going to be, boys?" she asked.

"I need more information before I make a decision," Edwin replied. "I need to know why you want this map and what you intend to do with it."

"I suppose if we're all sharing our collective trauma, you might as well get some of mine." Johanna leaned back in her chair and frowned deeply. "Her name was Astra. The short version is her father got caught in Satanic rituals, and she was the one who suffered." If ghosts could get sick, Edwin would have thrown up at that moment, and Johanna seemed to notice his change in demeanor. "I know this is probably a little too close to home, but it matters. I tried to stop it and save her, but it took her. She was just a child, younger than both of you and now she's down there because I couldn't stop it."

"Miss. Constantine, Johanna, I understand wanting her to escape, but you must understand how dangerous this information could be in the wrong hands," Edwin said slowly. "You deal with demons; you know how they are. Do we want to give them another avenue of escape?"

"There is a way to escape, and that's more hope than I've had in years," Johanna snapped. Edwin tried to hide his flinch, but he knew he failed because she sighed heavily. "I know how to keep it safe, and if I can't use it, I will burn it. After this is over, you can see what I'm talking about if you decide to tell me." Edwin knew that Charles wouldn't say anything about this because hell was Edwin's story, but the extra squeeze on his hand was all he needed to know, and his partner would support him no matter what.

"This man, Quentin, is escalating, and he is killing. He wants revenge for something, but we don't know what. As you saw earlier today, we are in need of help. So I will tell you what I know, Johanna, in exchange for your help on this matter," Edwin said.

"It's a deal then. So, why don't you boys catch me up on everything that has been happening, and we can figure something out," Johanna smiled, and it was sharp enough that you could glass on it.

+++

About halfway through explaining everything to Johanna, she got up, poured herself a large glass of whiskey, brought the bottle back, and then half of it was gone by the time they finished. Edwin was a little impressed by how unaffected she seemed by the alcohol.

"I'm afraid I don't know who this guy is, but I recognize this magic. You were right; it is old and all linked together," she explained. "The last mage that walked Earth that used it bound something very powerful to the world, and it didn't end well for humanity. This work sounds amateur, but it might be someone working on copies of the original book. You know how things get distorted when they are shared over and over again? That's what is happening with these runes. They're warped, and your friend isn't working off the original. If he was, this little plan of his might work."

"But you don't think it will?" Edwin asked.

"Not with the knowledge he's working with," Johanna said. "So whatever he is trying to accomplish, he's going to fail, and I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news for you boys. You really have no idea why he would want revenge on you?"

"Not a clue, but we've sold a lot of cases over the years. We could go through every single word of every single file, and we might be at that point, but it doesn't seem safe to work on that for any extended amount of time," Charles explained. "We need time, and he isn't giving us any." Johanna seemed to think on that momentarily and finished another glass of whiskey.

"Let's say I have someone very used to reading for long periods of time who could get a jump start on that. Is that something you'd be willing to do?" she asked. Edwin glanced at Charles; they hadn't ever considered handing over their casefiles to anyone before, but Johanna clearly had the means and opportunity to hurt them and hadn't. It didn't seem like she would do anything to their old paperwork.

"If this person is willing to work with extreme discretion. The mysteries we have solved are the stories of those that have crossed over and not something to be shared," Edwin said. He felt very strongly about this, and it was one of the reasons he and Charles would give cases somewhat irreverent names: to keep things as anonymous as possible out of respect for the dead.

"He's very good at keeping secrets, I can assure you of that," she said, and for some reason, this amused her. Johanna pulled out her mobile and dialed someone. It didn't ring many times before Edwin vaguely heard words that he couldn't understand on the other end. "Hello darling, how are we?" She paused, and something this person said made her grin wickedly. "You know I love hearing your stories as much as you love hearing mine, and we haven't gotten a meal in a little while, but I have a favor to ask. I know you aren't grading essays right now, and school is out, so I know you have some free time; I need you to go through some files and try to find a specific name." She paused again and laughed a little. "I don't know why you would assume I'm the one who is in trouble; I can assure you, I'm fine, but those boys who have been running around London since the early 90s are in a spot of trouble." Edwin glanced at Charles, who looked a little uneasy; whoever she was talking to was someone who knew about them. "Cheers, I'll bring them over immediately, and you can get to work. I'll find a way to make it up to you." Johanna didn't wait for the person to reply and hung up.

"This person is someone we can trust?" Charles asked carefully.

"He's annoying noble, considering how long he's been alive," Johanna replied, "and I would trust him with my life."

"Shall we approach this in steps?" Edwin asked.

"Hand over your casefiles, deal with the poltergeist, circle back to your revenge seeker? Sounds like a plan. I'm very curious to see this office of yours," Johanna said. Edwin didn't like bringing the living into the office, but if he could let Crystal and Niko in, he supposed this would also be fine. The iron burns appeared to be healed, but it was the middle of the night, and Johanna explained that she needed a couple of sleep, as did the person helping them with the case files. She told them they could stay the night but not to touch anything, and she would see them in a couple of hours. Edwin wished he had agreed not to touch anything because Johanna had some books he wanted to dig into, but he also knew that now wasn't the time.

"Charles," Edwin said softly. His partner blinked a few times as if to bring the world back into focus. "I believe you should be the one to decide how we will approach your father's poltergeist since it was something done with you clearly in mind."

"Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense," Charles said. "You know, I kept an eye on him and my mum. I knew they were getting older, but I didn't watch them all the time and didn't know how healthy they were; I just knew they were still here. I didn't think I'd ever have to actually see him again, and if I did, I wouldn't be afraid because he'd just be an old man who couldn't hurt me anymore, but I guess he'll always find a way to hurt me." Edwin didn't know how to reassure him that his father wouldn't hurt him anymore because he knew all about being chased by the demons of your past, both literally and figuratively, and there were no guarantees that this wouldn't happen again. Edwin leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Charles's forehead.

"Whatever you want to do, I will make sure it happens; that's what you deserve because you have earned that choice," he whispered. Charles shuddered but eventually wrapped his arms around Edwin. They didn't need to sleep, but Edwin felt more tired than he had been in a very long time. He carefully rearranged both of their bodies so he was lying on his back on the couch, and Charles was wrapped around him, holding on as tight as he needed to. Their legs were tangled together while Charles rested his head on Edwin's chest. Edwin ran his fingers through Charles's hair and down his back, and every now and then, they would shift to exchange chaste kisses.

The hours that Johanna spent sleeping crawled by, and Edwin was grateful they were getting time to relax.

+++

When they heard the shower turn on, Edwin and Charles broke apart, but before Charles could get too far away, Edwin pressed a soft kiss on his lips. He wanted his partner to know he was loved and supported, and Edwin would support whatever he decided to do today. Charles practically melted against him, and Edwin silently cursed the entire universe for finally giving him this at the worst possible time. When the kiss ended, Edwin stayed close, pressed his forehead to Charles, and let the two of them exist for a moment until the shower ended, and Johanna joined them not long after.

They had to take the long way to the office because of Johanna, but it was nice to walk with Charles and entwine their fingers together casually as if they'd been doing this for years. Thankfully, Johanna didn't comment about this; it wasn't that Edwin was ashamed of his new relationship with Charles, not even a little, but more that it was still such a new dynamic for them that he wasn't entirely comfortable sharing it with other people yet. He wanted to keep it just for them, even for a little while.

Thankfully, the office was still in the same state they had left it in, and Edwin could not express his relief that this barrier hadn't been breached again. He started to put all of their case files together as Charles moved a few things in his backpack to make transporting them a little easier. They didn't have a ton of boxes because the idea of moving everything wasn't something they had considered, and Edwin regretted his lack of forethought.

"Is now the right or wrong time to ask about the poltergeist?" Johanna asked. She had made herself comfortable at Edwin's desk like she owned the place. It was small, but Edwin could see how Charles tensed up just a little.

"You heard what we said yesterday; it's my dad," Charles said.

"I did, and I also like to respect the wishes of my clients when possible. While you didn't hire me for this, you're linked to this case, so I'm asking you," Johanna replied. Charles frowned and glanced up at Edwin, who nodded.

"I'm not going to sit here and try to argue that he deserved to live, but I don't think anyone deserves to be used like this," Charles said. Edwin made brief eye contact with Johanna, and he was surprised that he could have a silent conversation with someone other than Charles or the girls; they both seemed inclined to disagree about what Charles's father deserved. "I don't think Quentin thought my dad could destroy us or anything like that, but I do think he wanted to hurt me, and he's accomplished that."

"Who would you like to be the one to send him on?" Edwin asked.

"Johanna," Charles replied without hesitation. Edwin had to admit to himself that he was a little disappointed. The ugly part of himself that was bruised and broken in hell wanted to hurt Paul Rowland for the way he had hurt Charles both in life and in death. If it was revenge on behalf of the boy he loved, then it had to be altruistic, but Charles looked at him like he knew what Edwin was thinking and didn't want that for him.

"We will, of course, assist you in any way possible," Edwin said, which Johanna seemed to find amusing. Eventually, all of their cases were loaded into Charles's backpack, and they began to follow Johanna to another location. They still didn't know anything about this place they were going to or the person helping them, but Johanna hadn't done anything to show that she was someone they shouldn't trust. The last name, "Constantine," came up in many books Edwin had read over the years, so she was part of a family legacy.

Wherever Edwin thought Johanna would take them, a pub called The New Inn was not at the top of the list. Edwin glanced at Charles, who shrugged. Johanna gestured for the two of them to follow her as she used a key to get through the front doors that said "closed." She waited for them to walk through the door, and Edwin noticed that this place had some powerful wards carved into its wood. Nothing that would keep them in, but certainly there to keep something out.

"Johanna?" a male voice called from upstairs.

"I'm going to pour myself a drink while I wait for you," she called back. Johanna went behind the bar and began to pour herself some more whiskey when a man walked down the stairs and into the room. He was older, maybe in his late thirties, with dark hair, and was already smiling when he saw Johanna. "Dead Boy Detectives, this is Hob Gadling; he's the lazy professor who will help go through your case files. He's also a friend, I suppose," she said.

"Charming, as always, Johanna," Hob replied, but she waved him off. "Boys, I'm Hob. It's nice to finally meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Charles replied, quickly taking control of the social situation they suddenly found themselves in. "I'm Charles, and this is Edwin. Johanna said you could help us go through our files?"

"We're trying to find a link to someone who has been causing us trouble, but we don't recognize his name or face," Edwin continued. "Also, Miss Constantine said we could count on your discretion regarding our files. Is that true?" Hob looked a little amused by that but nodded.

"I know how to keep my mouth shut," he replied. "You can bring your things up to my flat, and I'll work there behind a locked door." Hob gestured for everyone to follow them, and Johanna did without hesitation as if she had been there multiple times. Edwin could not tell what these two people were to each other, and there didn't appear to be a good time to ask Charles if he could tell either.

Hob lived in one of the two flats above the pub. It was a small place that looked very lived in, with lots of furniture and trinkets that appeared much older than one might think a professor in his thirties could afford. Johanna had also implied on the initial phone call that Hob had known about them since the agency started, and he did not look old enough for that. This was setting off every single alarm bell in his head, and when Charles set his bag down to start unpacking, Edwin stopped him.

"Who or what are you, exactly?" Edwin asked. Hob looked a little surprised by that question, but Johanna rolled her eyes.

"I guess the shortest answer is I'm immortal, at least, for now," Hob said, as if that was something someone could just be. Now Edwin had even more questions.

"We can have a little tea party about all of this later," Johanna said before Edwin could ask any questions. "I'm sure Hob would be grateful to have someone else to talk to about all of this, but right now, we need to take care of our poltergeist problem. Like I said, he can keep a secret because otherwise, people would be dissecting him in a lab somewhere if they found out how long he had been alive."

"That's not a visual I wanted this early in the morning, Johanna, thank you for that," Hob replied. "She's right; I am very good at keeping secrets because I don't really have a choice, so rest assured, your case files are safe with me. If Johanna is this antsy to take care of this poltergeist, it must be nasty, so tell me what I need to be looking for, and when you get back, I can give you all the gory details if you still want them." Edwin didn't like this, but as with everything in this case, they were out of options, so he had to accept it. He nodded to Charles, who began to unload all of their cases. Edwin wrote down Quentin's name, the few things he said to them the other day, and what they could glean from the spells, but that was all they had to go on.

"Thanks for the help with this, mate," Charles said once he had laid out all the boxes chronologically.

"Think nothing of it," Hob replied. Usually, Edwin didn't trust people who didn't want payment or something in return, but Hob seemed to genuinely mean it. Johanna loudly said that the client who was paying her wanted to know why they could still hear the poltergeist screaming, so that was their cue to go. Hob was sitting with the first file and a large cup of tea as they left The New Inn.

+++

Edwin wanted to say that he had a plan for confronting Charles's father aside from letting Johanna do the dirty work, but he didn't. There was a good chance that he would go after Charles or himself, but Charles would probably try and get the attention on himself because that was how they usually worked. It seemed he was already up and screaming because they were a full block away, and they could hear the noise that he was making. Johanna narrowed her eyes as they approached.

"You know he's probably going to come after you, right Charles?" Johanna said.

"Yeah, I know, just send him to hell where he belongs. I'll make sure he doesn't interrupt anything," Charles replied.

"One-way ticket to hell coming up," Johanna said. She removed the spell from the door and went to push it open, but Charles stopped her. He took out his cricket bat and put himself between them and his father.

"You don't need to do this," Edwin said.

"No, I do; got to keep him from hurting you," Charles replied. Johanna raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as she gestured for Charles to continue. He pushed the door open, and they walked into the building. Several things happened at once. The first was that Paul Rowland appeared right in front of them, this time with a wicked-looking iron knife in hand, and he was so lost in his rage that he didn't even realize that it was burning him. The sudden burst of power sent Edwin back as Charles held his father off, and Johanna had her arms up to protect herself. Edwin was about to try to help her when he saw Quentin lurking at the far end of the room. When they made eye contact, he smirked and walked away.

"Quentin is here!" Edwin called out as Charles struggled to block the violent assault from his father. He looked furious, but it was also clear he wouldn't be able to do this for long.

"Don't you even think about going alone!" Charles replied, but Johanna was busy trying to bind Paul, and Charles couldn't spare a moment. They needed to find out why this was happening, which meant taking more risks. So Edwin ran across the room, ignoring the shouts of his partner, who really should have been focused on his fight, and followed Quentin further into the house.

Edwin was careful as he kept an eye on the floor and anywhere there could be drawn or carved into the wood. There was another scream from the poltergeist, and he wanted to turn around to help Charles, but this man had hurt the kindest soul he had ever met, and that would not stand. Edwin might have learned to run in hell, but he also learned hate and rage that he struggled, at times, to bury deep within. Quentin had hurt Charles in every way that counted, and there was no faster way to channel Edwin Payne's rage than to hurt Charles Rowland.

Quentin was trying to open a back door to leave when Edwin used one of the basic spells he knew and threw it, so the door slammed. He enjoyed how Quentin jumped a little; he clearly didn't expect anyone to follow him. He turned around and glared at Edwin.

"I didn't think you'd risk leaving Charles behind to follow me," Quentin said. There was another scream; whatever Quentin had done to Paul must have made him a formidable foe for even Johanna.

"You're going to stop this," Edwin said.

"Oh, we're coming up on the grand finale, dear boy. Don't you worry about that," Quentin replied.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't take care of you right now," Edwin threatened.

"How about your little boyfriend's safety? Your new friend is powerful, but I made sure Charles's father is also powerful, and that iron knife has a nasty bite to it." Quentin smirked as Edwin felt his heart drop. "Don't worry, it's nothing you can't take care of if you get to him right away. You might not make it if you stay here trying to care of me. I'd say you have a choice, Edwin, but let's not kid ourselves about which one you will make." Quentin turned to open the door, but Edwin hated him because there wasn't a choice. As Quentin walked out the door, Edwin turned and ran back to the front room as fast as he could, as if the spider was breathing down his neck again.

When he got back into the room, Charles was on the floor, holding a smoking iron wound on his arm. Johanna's white coat was covered in dirt, and there was a little blood right along her hairline. Her hands were shaking as she struggled to hold Charles's father in place, who was spitting the worst kind of venom at his son that Edwin had ever heard. Johanna looked up when she saw Edwin.

"Get him out of here. You both need to be out of the room, or I can't finish this," she said. Edwin could hear the strain in her voice and knew that, if given the choice, Johanna would probably opt to finish the job rather than protect them from hell. Edwin didn't hesitate as he rushed over and pulled Charles to his feet. The two of them stumbled back toward the back room, and as soon as they crossed the threshold, Edwin could hear Johanna finishing the banishing spell. They were to the side of the doorway and could see the red light of hell pouring in.

"Charles, please tell me you're all right." Edwin was frantic as he looked at the iron burn. While it seemed very deep and very painful, it didn't appear to be any different from any other iron burn they had gotten. It seemed that Quentin had exploited his feelings for Charles to get away.

"I can't fucking believe you went after him alone," Charles hissed. He sounded furious, but Edwin could see that the fear was just a response to fear. "Don't leave me behind again. I can't lose you." Charles was shaking, and Edwin pulled his partner tightly into his arms.

"You won't," Edwin replied. They clung to each other as the screams and red lights of hell faded away.

Edwin thought he would feel better knowing that Charles's father was gone, but that wasn't the case. He didn't feel better, not even a little, because even though he was no longer of this world, there were effects that Edwin desperately wanted to see gone. Charles's eyes were too dull; he was flinching at loud noises, and Edwin could only imagine the things that were going through his partner's head right now. He rechecked the iron wound to make sure that Quentin wasn't lying and Charles was about to vanish on him, but it was already healing. Charles said he was fine when Edwin prodded him about his state of being. They leaned heavily on each other as they walked back out into the main room and saw Johanna sitting on the ground.

She looked exhausted in a painfully human way, and it was a reminder that while she was powerful, she was a member of the living and not like either of them. Johanna looked up when they walked into the room and began to push herself to her feet.

"He got away?" she asked.

"Yes, but only because he made me think Charles was in grave danger, and I had to choose between stopping him or helping Charles," Edwin replied. "The wound looks like an iron burn that is just deeper and more painful than usual, but nothing else. Is that correct?" Johanna leaned down and picked up the iron blade. She began to look it over and hummed to herself.

"Yes, this is just an enhanced iron blade and not much else. Made to hurt but not to kill," she said, which was a relief. "I need to go and check in with the person who is paying me, but you boys should go check in with Hob and see if he has found anything about your little stalker friend. You should also ask if you can hide out there too; the place is warded and protected to hell and back because the 'mutual friend' we share is a paranoid asshole."

"Thank you," Charles said. It was clear he was thanking her for more than just the information about where they could go to be safe, but all of this seemed to have stolen Charles's words. "When he was leaving, did he--"

"He said nothing of value to you or anyone else," Johanna interrupted.

"We thank you for your help," Edwin said, but she waved him off. The three of them left the house, and Johanna went off down the street to find the person who hired her while Edwin began to search for a place with a mirror. It didn't take that long. There was a clothing shop with a mirror just down the road, and they could mirror-hop to a cafe not far from The New Inn. "He said that the 'grand finale' is coming. I did not get to speak with him very long, but that is what he said to me."

"So this is ending one way or another," Charles replied. "This has all been so dramatic, isn't it? Like something out of a bad movie."

"I suppose so, but drama only works when the plot makes sense, and you understand the characters' motivations. This isn't even a mystery; he's not leaving clues in any way that anyone could ever solve the case, and I get the impression he does not want us to solve anything." Edwin frowned as The New Inn came into view. "He said that we ruined his life and cost him everything, correct?"

"Yeah, that was what he said, that he was taking everything from us," Charles replied. "If he's working under some notion of poetic justice, then I guess he's taking everything from us too."

"Jenny no longer wants to associate with us, Thomas has all but banned us from ever going to Port Townsend again, Niko and Crystal both had things happen in their personal lives to take them away from London, and we had to stop taking cases and leave the agency when he broke in so that wasn't safe anymore. So he also took the Dead Boy Detectives from us," Edwin said.

"My dad was a fucking arsehole, what did killing him take away from me?" Charles asked. Edwin thought about the tension in Charles's shoulders, the flinching, the dead look in his eyes, and the way the words that his father spoke would likely be echoing in his mind for days, weeks, maybe even years. The way he knew that Charles was blaming himself for his father's death even though it was not his fault in any way. Edwin reached out and stopped Charles with a gentle hand on his arm so he could look his partner in the eye, and Charles flinched. He probably didn't even realize he was doing it.

"Your sense of peace, I believe he was trying to take your sense of peace," Edwin whispered. Charles stared at nothing for what felt like a very long time until he nodded.

"Yeah, I think he accomplished that," Charles whispered. Edwin took his partner's hand and entwined their fingers together. Charles held on tight, and Edwin let him. "Then you're his next target, Edwin; what will he try and take from you?" Edwin knew what his first thought was and what would hurt the most if he lost it was standing right in front of him. However, he also remembered what Johanna said about the runes probably not working the way Quentin wanted them to, and he couldn't see a way to separate them that would be a guarantee. He didn't think Quentin would leave that to chance. Edwin wasn't sure what the next thing was or how someone with Quentin's skills could accomplish something like this, but he refused to think that way.

"I won't let him take anything else from us, I promise," Edwin said. Charles didn't look like he believed Edwin, which was hard to see, but he didn't say anything. They continued to The New Inn and phased through the door. The pub was open this time, but no one reacted as they walked inside. Hob didn't appear anywhere downstairs, so Edwin guided Charles up the stairs and to the door of the flat they had seen earlier. It said a lot about Hob's nerves that he didn't even react when they phased through; he just looked up and smiled.

"Boys, how did it go?" he asked.

"It went as well as it could have," Edwin replied. "Johanna said that she needed to meet with the client that hired her, but I do not know what her plans are beyond that."

"She's coming back," Hob said as he gestured to his phone. "She texted me and said that she was on her way. I told her that since she just got paid, that meant it was her turn to buy dinner, and she told me to fuck off. So, I'm taking that as she's fine." Edwin didn't know what to make of their dynamic, but they needed to start looking into these case files and making some sort of headway there.

"Have you found anything yet?" Edwin asked. A box was set to one side, and a pile of cases was on the table.

"Not yet." Hob sat back in his chair and frowned as he looked at the boxes scattered around his room. "I thought, for a second, that I might be on to something or at least coming up with a way to make this easier. This guy is alive, as you both said, and you told me about how old he was, so I thought that would narrow down the time. The thing about magic users is that they can find weird ways to live for a very long time, and being alive doesn't mean he's mortal. I'm alive but not mortal, so that was a dead end."

"It was a good idea," Charles said. "It's pretty aces that you can't die, though. What's it like?" There were many times in Edwin's afterlife that he didn't miss being alive. There wasn't anything waiting for him in that life aside from a loveless marriage or his corpse cooling on the battlefield of one of the world wars. He was happier being dead than he ever was alive, but Charles didn't always think that way. Edwin tried not to take it personally when Charles mentioned that he missed being alive because it wasn't some sort of commentary on their relationship or their never meeting. Just because Charles missed being alive didn't mean he wished he was living in a world where they weren't together.

"Yes, perhaps your inability to die has something to do with our case," Edwin said. Hob was in a chair in the living room while Edwin sat next to Charles, close enough that they were touching. His partner still seemed very far away, and Edwin hoped his being close would be grounding. It was also the first time he thought of what was happening to them as a case.

"It's not," Hob said, and he sounded pretty sure about that. He must have seen the trepidation on Edwin's face. "Johanna was right that I don't get to talk about this very often, but the easiest way to describe it is that Death is giving me a pass." Edwin froze, and he could feel that Charles wasn't moving either. If Hob was directly connected to Death, just being around him like this was a massive risk. Edwin tried to weigh the pros and cons of grabbing Charles and running for the nearest mirror; their case files be damned. Hob must have noticed their expressions because he looked up from the case file; he was looking over and frowned. "Why do you two look like you're about to faint?"

"We don't want to see Death, ever," Charles said carefully. "If we see her, she'll separate us; we can't let that happen." Hob must have heard the dangerous tone of Charles's voice because he put up his hands like he was trying to appease them.

"I've spoken to her directly once, and that was it, I promise," Hob replied, but he did hesitate like he knew they wouldn't like what he would say next. "I am, I guess, affiliated with her brother though, Dream of the Endless."

"You are connected to the Endless," Edwin whispered. He thought back to being in hell and that woman with the fish hook ring and how she looked at him like that. He later learned who she was, and Hob made it sound like being connected to one of them was no big deal. Charles looked like he was about to do something profoundly stupid, like attack the man connected to the Endless and who couldn't die with his bare hands.

"That word 'affiliate' feels like it's doing a lot of heavy lifting, mate," Charles said lowly. "We want nothing to do with the Endless, so give me one good reason not to smash your head with a bat so the two of us can take off."

"Aside from the fact that it won't do any good?" Hob said. "Look, boys, let me tell you the long version, all right? It's a bit long, but it sounds like you don't trust me as far as you could throw me right now, so we'll go with the long version. If you still don't like the long version, I'll help you pack up your case files, and you can leave with no questions asked. You have my word." Edwin glanced at Charles, who didn't look convinced but didn't move either. He nodded carefully, and Edwin turned back to Hob.

"An explanation post haste would be appreciated," he said.

+++

The long version was much longer than Edwin thought it would be. Hob Gadling had been alive since the 1300s, and when he described how he became immortal as a bet between two gods, it sounded ridiculous. However, Edwin had seen a lot of strange things over the years, and if hell, magic, and ghosts were real, there was probably no limit to how strange the world could get. Hob didn't seem to mind that he was alive because of a bet, but perhaps that was something he had come to terms with already. Edwin wasn't sure he would be okay with that, but Hob didn't seem worried. So he announced he wouldn't die in the presence of Dream and Death, and Death took his words literally.

From there, Hob described meeting with Dream once every 100 years so Dream could ask if Hob wanted to die. This might be one of the most twisted things Edwin had heard in a while, and that was coming from someone who spent 70 years in hell. However, Hob didn't seem to think it was a big deal and described these meetings as moments he cherished. He talked about meeting Johanna's ancestor and never actually knowing what or who Dream was; he was just the Stranger.

Then they fought, and Dream didn't turn up for one of their meetings.

"What do either of you know about encephalitis lethargica, the sleepy sickness?" Hob asked.

"It was a new sickness that had just begun to affect people when I was taken to hell," Edwin said. "People were panicking, wondering if this was going to be another black plague, but the First World War was still ravaging the world, so most were focused on that."

"I knew people who had it," Charles replied. "One of my mates in school when I was little didn't wake up one day; he just kept on sleeping, and nothing would wake him up. A neighbor down the road stopped sleeping and went mad. He killed his entire family and then himself." Edwin had to admit that he was surprised the illness was still around once he got out of hell and learned about all the advancements made in medical science.

"That disease happened because some mage trapped Dream in his basement for over a century," Hob said. Edwin remember Johanna mentioning the last time runes and spells similar to the ones Quentin was attempting were used, something terrible happened. "I didn't know he was captured and thought he just stood me up, so I didn't go looking. He escaped recently and came to find me. We reconnected." Edwin frowned because it seemed like Hob wasn't quite telling the truth, but the door to the flat opened, and Johanna walked in carrying bags of takeaway.

"Have some food," she said as she handed Hob his meal. "Is he telling you his tragic backstory?"

"I'd hardly call it tragic," Hob replied.

"Did he get to the part where we're both sleeping with Dream at the same time?" she asked. Hob groaned as he hid his face in his hands. Edwin glanced at Charles, who just shrugged. Edwin might be old and still trying to understand his own sexuality, but he wasn't unaware of what other people in the world were doing.

"I hadn't, actually, so thank you for probably scarring them for life," Hob said. Johanna's smirk faded as she took Hob's chin in her hand and turned his head so he looked into her eyes.

"I can assure you those boys have seen far worse than hearing about our sex lives," she said. Hob blinked, glanced at them, and then nodded. Edwin appreciated Johanna quite a lot for that because she was making it clear that he and Charles weren't children that Hob needed to tip-toe around while also not disclosing everything they had gone through without their consent.

"They're worried about Death," Hob said. "I thought maybe telling them my story would convince them that they don't have anything to worry about, at least not from us."

"What about Dream? They are siblings; couldn't he tell her where we are?" Edwin asked.

"If we asked him not to be, he wouldn't," Johanna said, sounding rather confident about that. "He's rather vague on the rules, but the siblings don't interact much. What happened with Hob is extremely rare, and they can go centuries without even seeing each other."

"Boys," Hob said, "you have someone trying to hurt you, and just looking through some of your cases, it's clear you do good work. I want to help you, we want to help you, so please let us help you." Edwin glanced at Charles, who nodded.

"If I see anything fishy, I don't care if you can't die; I will clock you upside the head with my bat and make a run for it," Charles warned.

"While I might not be as proficient as you are, Miss. Constantine, I promise I can defend myself with my own skills if my partner or myself are threatened," Edwin said.

"Those are reasonable terms," Hob replied. He didn't seem that worried about the threat, nor did Johanna, but Edwin supposed that both of them knew they had the upper hand at the end of the day. "Between Dream and Johanna, this place should be safe, so let's see if we can get some information about your guy in these case files."

+++

Edwin was starting to think the answers weren't in the case files because nothing was coming up. They had four people pouring over every detail, and while they weren't going through every detail exactly quickly, it wasn't a slow process either. They had found the name Quentin a few times, but they all turned out to dead ends. They were people who were long and very much confirmed to be dead or even clients that they had helped pass along. If this was a fake name, they were running around in circles; it was obvious that Quentin had something else planned for them, and it was only a matter of time before he struck again.

He was also getting more and more worried about Charles. Normally, he would be chatting with people like Johanna and Hob with an ease that Edwin was deeply jealous of. This time, he was very quiet and only responded when he was asked questions. Edwin was the one forced to engage in conversation, and if he could die again, that might be the thing that sent him over the edge. Hob and Johanna didn't know them, so they didn't know that this was so uncharacteristic of Charles, so they were little help as well.

Eventually, Hob told them that the two living people needed a break and that there was another flat across the hall they could rest in if they wanted some privacy. That sounded pretty much ideal to Edwin, and he all but dragged Charles out of Hob's flat and into the empty one across the hall. It was tiny, but there were a few basic pieces of furniture, including a bed, a sofa, and a mirror on the wall that they could use to travel.

"You really spirited us out there, didn't you, mate?" Charles said. He was smiling, trying to joke and act like everyone expected him to, but Edwin could see right through it.

"I was getting overwhelmed and needed some time away. I wanted you to join me," Edwin replied, which was a lie, but he wasn't sure if Charles was ready to have a conversation about all of this. He walked forward very slowly and telegraphed his movements so Charles knew exactly what he would do before he did it. It didn't matter; Charles flinched anyway, but Edwin acted like he didn't see it. He carefully removed Charles's backpack from his shoulder, set it aside, and took his partner by the hand to pull him over to the bed while maintaining eye contact.

Charles didn't resist, and before long, they were lying on the bed together. It took a little quiet trial and error for them to figure out how they wanted to hold each other, but eventually, they settled with Charles on his back, and Edwin wrapped around him tightly. Their arms were wrapped tightly around each other, and there wasn't a hint of space between their bodies. It was as easy as breathing to tangle their legs together. Edwin tucked his face into Charles's neck and closed his eyes as he let himself live in the moment.

"Edwin," Charles whispered after what could have been a minute or an hour. Edwin opened his eyes and shifted just enough that he could look Charles in the eyes. "I love you." Edwin closed the distance between them so their foreheads were rested against each other and their lips were but a hair's breadth apart.

"I love you too," Edwin replied. Like everything between them in this aspect of their dynamic, it was easy to close that tiny distance, so they were kissing. It was still surreal and still felt like a dream to Edwin. He didn't think he'd ever feel this or ever have anything like this with anyone. Even after he confessed to Charles and knew that they had the rest of time to figure it out, somewhere in the back of his mind, Edwin knew there was a chance this might not ever happen. Yet here he was, here they were, and even with the hell they were going through, they still got to have this.

Charles carefully rolled them over so Edwin was on his back and Charles was settled on top of him; only this felt more intimate. Edwin could feel his partner's leg between his, and when he gasped, Charles slipped his tongue into Edwin's mouth. They hadn't kissed like this many times; there hadn't been any time, but there was time right now, and Edwin wasn't about to waste it. He had no idea what he was doing, so he let Charles take the lead and followed. Edwin loved Charles's curls, which were perfect when he threaded his fingers through them. He didn't mean to pull on Charles's hair, but the sound Charles made in response was one Edwin wanted to pocket and keep with him for the rest of his afterlife.

When Charles broke their kiss, Edwin was about to take advantage of his grip on Charles's hair to pull him back in, but his partner had other ideas. Charles began to press soft kisses along Edwin's jawline and down onto the apparently sensitive skin of his neck. He didn't know that someone kissing him there would feel like he was alive again, but this was the new reality he was living in. Edwin gasped and tried to pull Charles even closer. He was suddenly aware that he was hard, and he could feel that Charles was just as hard against his hip. Their bodies were moving against each other in a way that felt like it was nearing frantic, like they were running somewhere and needed to get there as quickly as possible.

Edwin didn't have experience, and he didn't know all of the slang terms, but he knew what sex was and the basic mechanics behind it. There were several things either of them could do to bring them both to orgasm, but Edwin wasn't sure if either of them was willing to do more than what was already happening.

"Charles," Edwin gasped. He wasn't even sure what he was asking for or what he wanted, but Charles kissed him again. There wasn't anything soft or loving about this kiss; now, it felt like they were trying to devour each other. Edwin wished they were wearing fewer clothes, but to take anything off would mean letting go of Charles, and that wasn't happening anytime soon. When Charles bit Edwin's lower lip, that was what sent him over the edge, and he instinctively pulled on Charles's hair in return. That was his partner's breaking point, and they were left tangled in each other's arms, breathing hard despite not needing to breathe at all and exchanging slow and deep kisses that Edwin could get lost in.

"I almost want to make fun of us for getting each other off with kissing, but we are teenagers," Charles said. It was such a ridiculous statement that it cut through any lingering tension in the air as they both laughed.

"It was perfect," Edwin said softly.

"Yeah, because it's us," Charles replied. The cleaning-up phase was pretty basic; they found some tissues and imagined clean clothing on their bodies. It hadn't been that long, so Edwin didn't think they could get back to the case files, and he wanted to keep the spark in Charles's eyes around as long as possible. He wasn't always the best when talking about things, but he needed to make sure that Charles knew he didn't have to face the specter of his father alone. They collapsed onto the couch, with Charles lying in Edwin's lap. Edwin traced the curves of his ear and jaw anywhere he could touch them. "There's something I need to do, and I'm afraid to do it."

"Tell me? Maybe I can help," Edwin replied.

"My mum," Charles said after a long silence. "I feel like if Quentin had killed her, he would have forced me to see her too, so I don't think she's dead. I should go check in on her, but I don't know what I want to see. If I see her mourning my dad, I think I'm going to be angry because he was a bastard who nearly fractured my skull and locked me in a basement for almost two days; he doesn't deserve any tears. If she isn't mourning him, I think that's going to be even worse because then I'll always think that maybe she didn't love him as much as she said she did, maybe she could have left and gotten me out of there, and she chose not to.

"Is he going to get a funeral?" Charles continued. "Are people going to stand up there and eulogize him, say he was a good man, a devoted husband, and a father? Is there going to be an investigation into how he died? Is someone going to care enough to see if he was murdered, or are they just going to rule it an accident? Are they going to put more effort into solving his case than they ever put into mine?" Charles was shaking, and he buried his face into Edwin's lap, but there wasn't any hiding the tears. "Will his death matter more than mine? Will he matter more than I did?"

"First things first, you matter; you matter more to me than anyone else, and I love you. We have spent the last thirty years helping other ghosts move on when no one was there to help us and solve our cases. The Lost and Found Department wouldn't have taken us on if we didn't have some sort of impact," Edwin said. "I can go and see your mum for you if you like, and I can just tell you if she's well and nothing else. This is what Quentin wants; he wants you to feel like this. I know it's difficult, but I also know you're stubborn enough not to let that man win." Charles rolled over so he was on his back, and they looked at each other. Edwin knew he wasn't the best at trying to comfort someone, but it made his heart ache to see Charles hurting like this and unable to do anything about it. Paul Rowland was gone; there wasn't anything to fight, yet Charles was still in pain.

"Thanks for the offer, love," Charles said, and Edwin did his best not to react to the new term of endearment because now was not the time. Later, he would allow himself to linger on that word later. "I think I need to go see her and whatever she is doing. However, she is reacting; that's just how it is. There's no right answer, so it doesn't matter one way or another." Charles reached over and took Edwin's hand in his own, entwining their fingers, and Edwin never got tired of holding Charles like this. "Can we stay like this for a little while longer? Then we can go see her."

"When you're ready, we can go," Edwin replied. It probably wasn't the best use of their time; they should have kept going through those case files, but Quentin had already taken so much from them. This could help Charles, and that was worth everything.

+++

They rested until the morning, and then Charles seemed motivated to see his mother. Edwin wasn't sure how he would react when he saw Mary Rowland. On one hand, he knew that she was a battered woman on some level and how difficult it was for women to escape situations like that. At the same time, Edwin might hate her for failing to protect Charles just as much as he hated Paul for the actual abuse. It was just further proof of how strong and brave Charles was that he was willing to face this, and he reminded him of that after they passed through a mirror near the old house.

Charles did not want to mirror-hop directly into the house, and Edwin wasn't about to question him about it.

It was early morning, but people moved around Charles's childhood home. Edwin could immediately see the family resemblance, and the sight of them made Charles freeze in place.

"My aunties, some of my cousins, all of the people that never visited when I was alive from mum's side of the family," Charles said. "I'm sure Dad told them not to, but if they tried, they didn't try very hard." Edwin began to take in the little details around the house, and there was plenty of evidence of a marriage and a life lived with a spouse but no evidence of a child. Charles was absent from the walls and any pictures on tables; he wasn't on display anywhere for anyone to see.

They walked into the kitchen, where almost everyone was except Charles's mother. She was absent, but everyone was talking about what was going on.

"When will the autopsy be finished?" a woman asked as she drank a large cup of tea. Edwin wordlessly reached over and took Charles's hand because this was what they were worried about; it appeared that when Quentin killed Paul, he didn't make it look natural or like an accident.

"At least another couple of days, mum," a man in his forties replied. He looked tired, and Edwin could only guess this must have been one of Charles's cousins. They were probably close to the same age at one time. "Once they have an official ruling, Scottland Yard will decide whether or not they want to pursue the case." This was becoming the ultimate slap in the face to Charles because they were looking into his father's death, they were giving it attention, and they were treating it like a crime where justice could and should be served.

"Come with me," Charles whispered. He hesitated as he looked at the door leading down to the basement but eventually headed up the stairs as they phased through the door and into the master bedroom. Mary Rowland was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, tears falling from her eyes, but she didn't make a sound. Her breathing was so quiet and so controlled that you wouldn't even know someone was in there. Edwin wondered if this was the only way she could cry silently so her husband wouldn't know it was happening. She was hugging a framed photo from her wedding to her chest.

On her side table, there was something that caught Edwin's eye. It was a picture of Mary and a very young Charles hugging each other tightly and grinning at the camera. It was the only evidence he had seen of Charles in this house from the moment they had walked in. Charles saw the picture and then looked at his mother.

"I hope things are better now," he said, and that was all Charles wanted to say. He guided Edwin out of the room and back into the kitchen. This time, they ignored the gossiping family members as they spoke about funeral arrangements and went to the basement. It was risky, but they flipped on the lights, and what used to be Charles's room lit up. There wasn't any evidence of him, though. It just looked like a basement that someone furnished at one point. "I don't know what I was expecting. It's not like they would just leave everything like I had left it, but there's nothing. There's that one picture on mum's dresser, and that's the only evidence in this house that I existed."

"Charles," Edwin said softly as Charles even met his gaze. "The world and its people are worse off for forgetting you." Charles blinked once and then pulled Edwin into a rough kiss. Edwin let Charles put everything he was feeling into that. He let his partner hold onto his clothes hard enough that the seams were starting to pop, and he welcomed a kiss so passionate it would have left his lips bruised if they were both still alive. Charles eventually broke the kiss, but he stayed close.

"Her family is here, and that's good. He didn't let her have any friends, made sure she was isolated, but they're here, and they will take care of her," Charles whispered. Edwin could read between the lines; Charles was absolving himself of any responsibility for his mother. That was good; he didn't need to carry another burden.

"Shall we go back to The New Inn?" Edwin asked when he could tell that Charles had started to relax. He nodded, and they turned off the basement light before making their way upstairs, hand in hand. Mary came from her bedroom as they walked into the living room, but Charles didn't spare her a glance. They walked through the mirror to return to The New Inn without looking back.

+++

When they got back to The New Inn, they argued. It wasn't a very long or particularly vicious one, but they disagreed on whether or not they should reach out to Crystal and Niko. So far, they hadn't said anything to either of them out of fear of drawing Quentin's ire, but they knew he was in town and far away from them. So maybe they would be safe, but maybe they wouldn't, and it wasn't so much that they were arguing as they were talking past each other because they both wanted to do whatever it took to keep Crystal and Niko out of this.

In the end, Edwin suggested utilizing Hob or Johanna to reach out to the girls to tell them what was happening and that they were safe. They didn't need to know any of the details, not right now, but just hearing that they were safe might be enough to keep them from inciting an invasion of London. When they reunited with Johanna and Hob, Johanna offered to send the message. She got immediate replies from Niko and Crystal demanding proof that Edwin and Charles were actually there and fine. The only thing they could do was share an incident only they would know, that they met the washerwoman, as proof that it was them. The girls seemed to accept that answer but were still leery of everything. Edwin didn't really blame them.

The case files continued turning up nothing, and the piles were getting much smaller.

"This doesn't make any sense," Edwin muttered as he set aside another file. "If we really did harm this man like he says we did, he would be in the case file as someone important or linked to a client."

"Maybe he isn't important," Hob suggested. "If being around as long as I have has taught me anything, it's that many people think they are the star of someone else's life. Maybe this guy thinks he's important to one of your clients when, in reality, he isn't."

"If that's the case, he's not going to be anywhere in this paperwork," Johanna said as she leaned back. "If we're following this line of thought, a man who thinks he is more important in the lives of someone else? If that's the case, we can probably eliminate anyone who is a man because a man wouldn't act like this for another man if he's straight. This is how abusive men act toward women they want to control. Statistically, anyway." That made Charles sit up, and he frowned deeply.

"He wasn't a husband then because we would have something about that. Or even a boyfriend. If he were the one responsible and just shifting blame to us, he'd be on a suspects list," he said.

"Did we ever help a client who was dealing with a stalker?" Edwin asked. "Maybe we're not the first ones he stalked. Perhaps this woman, maybe our client, was his first victim." It was a little easier to dig through everything when they could disregard male clients, but a few hours later, Johanna held up a file.

"Her name was Elizabeth Lorie," Johanna said as she opened the file. "Her friends called her Lizzie, and you helped her five years ago." Edwin took the file as Charles joined him so they could look it over. Lizzie was thirty-five when she died, but it was ruled an accident. She had fallen down the stairs of her flat and broken her neck; no one thought there was any foul play. It was a sudden death, and Lizzie didn't want to move on because she had unfinished business with her mother. They needed to reconcile, and Lizzie wrote a letter to her mother apologizing and forgiving her for previous transgressions. They needed to help Lizzie's mother find the letter to help her mother find peace. Once she had the letter, Lizzie was at peace and moved on.

"There isn't anyone here with Quentin's name or any men listed at all," Edwin said. "Lizzie wasn't seeing anyone and said she hadn't been interested in seeing anyone for a long time. She just wanted to mend things with her mother. She only mentioned that she had gotten some strange letters in the mail from someone, but we didn't look into it because she said it wasn't related. It was a bad date."

"If she filed anything with Scottland Yard, it isn't anywhere I can find it online," Hob replied. "And we don't have a last name for your mage, so we can't backtrack that way either. Either the stalking had just started, it wasn't so bad that she didn't feel like she could not deal with it alone, or she was too afraid to report it."

"She wasn't afraid," Charles said definitively. "I can assure you that she was not afraid of someone hurting her, I can tell, and she wasn't. She just wanted her mum to find that letter, and that was all." Edwin looked at the photograph of Lizzie when she was alive that they kept in the file as if he could will her to give him some answers. They didn't even know if this was the right person, but they had nothing else, and assuming Quentin was directly linked to a client of theirs was not working out.

"Let us continue our search until we finish all of the case files and make sure there isn't something we missed," Edwin said. However, nothing else turned up that seemed to fit the criteria they were now working under, and Quentin was never mentioned in any of their paperwork. They were left with Lizzie and no other obvious candidate, but her case was also giving them no other information aside from the fact that they were likely not Quentin's first stalking victims.

It was getting late when Johanna's phone rang, and she picked it up. She frowned, however, and pulled the phone away to set it on speakerphone.

"Yeah, could you repeat that for me?" Johanna asked.

"You're Johanna Constantine, right?" Jenny's voice said on the other line. Edwin glanced at Charles; they hadn't heard or seen Jenny since she told them to stay away not long after her attack. "I need you to help me find two ghost teenagers who run around the city."

"And why do you need to find them?" Johanna asked.

"The final report on an attack on me was released, and I got a copy. I figured they would want one," Jenny replied. That was information that they could use, but the timing could not be ignored. Edwin looked at Johanna, and she seemed to understand his hesitation.

"Say they want proof that it's you; what's something I could tell them that only you and them would know?" Johanna asked.

"When I woke up and could see them for the first time, half of my hair was in a braid because of Niko," Jenny replied. That was very specific, and there didn't appear to be any evidence that Quentin could read minds like Crystal. Johanna watched them carefully until she turned the phone off the speaker and put it back in her ear.

"I don't work for free, but I need to look into a few things before I can take on this little scavenger hunt. Give me your number, and I'll get back to you," Johanna said. She nodded once and hung up. Hob was watching her with a raised eyebrow. "What? I need to make it look like a real job."

"Sure you did," Hob deadpanned. "Boys, did that sound like her and was that something only she would know?"

"She and two other people that we trust and who aren't even in the country," Charles replied. "She was also the first one that Quentin attacked."

"This seems like it could be some sort of trap, but Jenny did not sound like she was under duress, and we will approach her carefully just in case," Edwin said.

"Don't chase after this bastard without me," Johanna warned. "He might be a novice, but that doesn't mean he won't get lucky." She was right that something about this didn't feel right, but Edwin had a feeling that when they confronted Quentin, it would be orchestrated so Johanna wouldn't be around. Judging by how he got his cricket bat from his backpack, Charles seemed to know it, too, before they mirror-hopped close to Jenny's store.

+++

Edwin was thrilled that Jenny was alone when they phased through her new door and into the store. However, she didn't look entirely happy to see them, and the bat that Charles had enchanted for her was still nearby. She looked good, though, safe, so keeping away from her to keep her safe was proving to be the right call.

"I have everything on the boys that attacked me," Jenny said as she handed them a folder. "They wanted me to look it over to see if I knew anything about them or if any of it looked familiar. It doesn't, but I figured you two might be able to do something about it."

"Thaks, Jenny," Charles said. "Has anyone bothered you?"

"Shockingly, keeping away from you two has kept the trouble away from my door," Jenny replied. The words stung more than Edwin was willing to admit, and something was starting to take root in the back of his mind that he didn't have time to think about. Now was not the time, and he pushed those thoughts away.

"Thank you, Jenny. Hopefully, all of this will be resolved soon," Edwin said. Jenny narrowed her eyes as she looked between them.

"If you think I'm angry at you now, you don't want to know how angry I'll be if you run off to do something fucking stupid and break Crystal and Niko's hearts," Jenny said. Edwin could hear the threat for what it was, but they couldn't promise her anything; they couldn't promise anything to each other.

"Stay safe," Charles said without acknowledging what she had said. Edwin thought about it momentarily and took them to the office instead of The New Inn. It was quiet, and it didn't appear that anything had been disturbed, so Quentin hadn't managed to break in. They both settled on the couch and began to look over the file without saying a word to each other.

The details about the three men, boys really, they weren't that much older than they were when they died, didn't have anything specific that stood out to Edwin. They were a group of friends that used to run around together and cause trouble as kids, mischief, nothing like robbery and assault. Edwin handed off all three of their histories as he began to look over the timeline they put together of their movements in the day leading up to the attack. Nothing stood out to him until Edwin realized they had been near or possibly in their old school.

They would have broken in over a long weekend, and it would have been completely abandoned. There was CCTV footage of them going in and coming out mere moments later. They had bags on them, so the police theorized that the youngest was trying to get something a sibling had left there. They checked the school, and nothing was touched, and nothing appeared to be missing, and the attackers were already dead by the time they found this footage. They were careful not to get caught, and Scottland Yard made this connection on one camera from one angle. They dismissed it as unimportant, but Edwin felt something terrible settle into his stomach.

Quentin seemed to know everything about them, and while it wasn't as poetic as bringing them back to St. Hilarion, making their final confrontation occur at a school seemed to fit the level of dramatics that their stalker was going for.

"Charles," Edwin said. "Jenny's attackers broke into their school over a long weekend and were careful not to get caught going in. One camera caught them. No one knew about or drew attention to it because they didn't take anything."

"You think this is where Quentin gave them the orders to attack Jenny?" Charles asked.

"Yes, and he knows our pasts, and forcing us to confront him at a school seems to coincide with everything we know about him," Edwin replied. "I believe if we go to that school, he'll be waiting for us. He knew we'd get this file today, and it's the weekend and the summer holidays. No one will be there." Charles stared at their door like he had seen something, but Edwin hadn't heard or seen anyone. Charles got up, unlocked their door, and opened it to reveal a piece of paper left on the floor.

Edwin got a pair of tweezers and picked it up to carry it over the desk. It looked like it had been sitting there for a little while. There was a little dust on the paper but nothing else. It took a little work, but Edwin opened the paper without touching anything. It was a series of addresses, and Edwin immediately knew what they were.

"The first one is Jenny's new shop," Edwin said. "Then there is the warehouse where Thomas usually stays, the address of Niko's mother's home, the hotel where Crystal is staying with her parents, Johanna's flat, and The New Inn."

"It's another threat," Charles said.

"Yes, no doubt it's telling us he knows where the people we care about or have helped us live. He threatening them so we won't go to any of them for help," Edwin replied.

"We knew this was what he would do," Charles said softly. "And I'm so fucking terrified for you, Edwin. You're the one he would be going after for this grand finale of his." Charles suddenly looked into Edwin's eyes and seemed a little frantic. "You have to me that you're going to let me be the first one through the door."

"Charles, he's not just coming after me. He clearly will be going after you as well," Edwin replied, but Charles was clearly not inclined to agree with him.

"No, he made sure everything that had happened was tailor-made to specifically hurt one of us more than the others. You need to let me protect you." Charles started to shake again as if the mere idea that Edwin might not let him protect him was more terrifying than facing the man who had sworn some sort of terrible revenge on them.

"The way he can hurt me is by hurting you," Edwin said. "By that logic, I should be the first one through the door." They were clearly at an end pass, and Edwin was usually more than willing to try to out stubborn Charles Rowland, but this appeared to be something he needed to do. "Fine, first through the door, but I'll be at your back the entire time."

"I wouldn't want you anywhere else," Charles replied.

+++

Edwin knew this was a trap, just as Charles knew it was one. The problem was they didn't know how connected Quentin was or if he could get to one of their friends or allies before they got to him. Edwin was many things, but he refused to put others in the line of fire for himself. This was one of those moments when he wished Charles was someone he didn't have to put in the line of fire, but his partner wouldn't let him go into that school alone.

A block away, they both stopped and held each other for a long time. Neither of them said anything because they were beyond words as far as Edwin was concerned. They just needed to hold each other before they walked into that building. Edwin wanted to reassure Charles that they were already dead, so pain was the worst thing waiting for them on the other side, but it felt like a lie, and he couldn't understand why. Even so, they couldn't put this off any longer, and the more they waited, the better chance Quentin would have of trying to do something for someone else.

Edwin had to give him credit for choosing a school as the place for his so-called "grand finale." Both he and Charles were so linked to their time in school, their time there so monumental to who they are today, that the drama of it all made sense considering the man they appeared to be dealing with. They approached the front door, and Edwin looked it over and saw nothing suspicious. They could phase through, Charles first, but Edwin right behind him. He wondered if they would have to find an attic or the basement to find Quentin, but he decided to make it easy for them. A dim light shone at the end of the hallway, beckoning them like the lantern they both used at one point.

Nothing happened as they carefully made their way down the halls, and there appeared to be anti-bullying posters on the walls. The world decided irony was the way to go. Charles didn't notice them; his eyes focused squarely on that light. Once they got to the door, Edwin once again checked to see if there was anything strange about it, but there wasn't. Charles looked him in the eye and nodded once, his bat in hand. Edwin had memorized some spells he thought could help deal with this man.

As soon as they phased through the door, several things happened simultaneously. The first was that Quentin was standing in the middle of the room, which appeared to be a cafeteria of some sort, waiting for them like he didn't have a care in the world. Charles tossed his bag to the side, but as soon as he stepped toward Quentin, something on the floor flared to life, and Charles shoved Edwin to the side as the rune on the floor activated.

"Nice to see you again, boys," Quentin said as he approached them. Charles bared his teeth, but when he tried to move, he couldn't. He was bound within the small circle, and it appeared he was struggling against an invisible wall.

"Edwin!" Charles said as he began to slam his fists into the barrier, but it didn't appear to be making any difference. Edwin knew Charles's nightmares and his being unable to help or do something as Edwin was hurt was right at the top.

"What did you do to him?" Edwin said as he backed away from Quentin.

"Just a binding rune; I've been playing around with them, as you know from what little clues I left you," Quentin replied as he grinned. "You're the spellcaster of your little group; let's see how quick you really are." The problem with magic was that the right spells cast in the right way could very much interact with ghosts. Edwin wanted to get over to Charles to break the rune, but he had to mutter a deflecting spell to keep fire from hitting him square in the chest. Vaguely, Edwin could still hear Charles screaming his name, but he couldn't focus on that right now.

Quentin, it appeared, had the advantage. Iron was everywhere, from the tables to the debris on the ground. Every time Edwin tried to move out of the way, he inadvertently touched more of the iron. The more iron he touched, the more tangible he became and the more impact the spells could have on him. Edwin was talented, but he was no sorcerer or warlock, and it was taking everything he had to block the various elements and iron that were being thrown at him. He was getting tired, and that was when Quentin decided to get up close and personal.

The crowbar was probably the one that nearly cracked Charles's skull open what felt like a lifetime ago, and Edwin had to try and breathe through the pain as he picked up an iron bar to defend himself with. Edwin remembered some of his fencing lessons as a child, but the iron burned his hand, making it hard to concentrate. He needed to get over to Charles and break the rune; he couldn't do this alone. Edwin tried to make his way back over to Charles, but instinct took over, and he dropped the iron because the pain was too much.

The blow from the crowbar was hard enough to send Edwin down like a stack of bricks. Charles was still screaming, telling Quentin to break the rune so he could pick on someone his own size, but everything was blurry, and there was a slight ringing in Edwin's ears.

"You fucking asshole, why are you doing this?" Charles screamed in a tone that Edwin hadn't heard before. "You've been stringing us along for months with this revenge bullshit, but we have no fucking clue who you are!"

"It was Lizzie," Edwin managed to say. The world was beginning to come back into focus, but he could hear Quentin approaching him. Edwin struggled to pull himself across the floor, hoping that if he got to the rune, he could break it and Charles could help somehow.

"I wasn't expecting you to know that, but I suppose I was important to her," Quentin said, and he sounded genuinely surprised. "Our first date was magical. There was an instant connection, but she was too stuck up to notice it. She needed me; she wanted to be with me, and I just needed to show her."

"So you stalked her," Charles said.

"I hate that word," Quentin snapped. "The accident happened on the stairs. She never even saw I was there, and I didn't mean for her to fall. I just wanted to use a spell on her so she could see why I was the one for her." Edwin thought he would be sick to hear Quentin talk about Lizzie like this. He was someone who wasn't going to take "no" for an answer, and, in some ways, she was probably fortunate that a painless death on the stairs was the only thing he did to her.

"We had nothing to do that," Edwin said. He was so close to the rune that the crowbar came down on his ribs. If there was wind in his lungs, there wasn't now, and Edwin curled into himself to fight through the pain.

"I was going to bring her back, and I was almost there, but you two twats had to help her cross over to the other side," Quentin's voice sounded like it was coming from every direction. "I tried to find something that could bring her back from the other side, but nothing worked; nothing brought her back. I would bring her back as a spirit and tie us together forever."

"She wanted nothing to do with you," Charles said lowly. "You weren't even a footnote in her life. We didn't even have you in her case file because you meant nothing to her."

"Keep your mouth shut, you little asshole, or I'll take it out on the one currently writhing in pain on the floor," Quentin said. Edwin managed to force himself to sit up, but he was beside Charles and could not touch him. Quentin was standing over both of them with a crazed look in his eyes. "You sent her away from me, so I couldn't bring her back. So, once I heard about how you were infamous now for working in America, I knew you had connections. You two had things to lose, so I made sure you lost them all, and now you're going to lose the one thing neither of you can even fathom losing: each other."

"You don't know how to do that," Edwin whispered.

"Oh Edwin, I do, though. All I need to do is make sure that Death comes to collect your little friend who can't move out of that rune, and you two will have lost the most important thing in your lives." Quentin smiled as he dropped the crowbar on the ground. "I modified the spell used to trap Dream of the Endless all those years ago; this one just puts out a little beacon to let Death know she is needed here. I started the process the second you two walked into the building."

"We have an agreement that we're protected," Charles said, but he didn't sound confident.

"I saw all of that from your casework, but the funny thing about conditional pardons is that the conditions change, and you boys haven't been pulling your weight for a while. Are you really that sure it will protect both of you?" Quentin asked. "Don't try breaking the rune; you won't in time. And you can chase me down if you want to, Edwin, but you might return to an empty room. You should say your goodbyes."

Edwin felt like the walls were closing in on him, like he was racing through the Doll House again, and the spider was right behind him. It had just clenched its jaws around one of his limbs. Death was coming, and while their deal seemed to protect him from hell, the terms regarding Death were much blurrier. Charles fell to his knees, and they were close enough to touch; there was no space between them, yet they couldn't get to one another. Edwin ignored the sound of Quentin walking away because he had won. This was the ultimate revenge against the Dead Boy Detectives.

"There has to be something I can do," Edwin whispered as he began to look at the rune. He could break it, and then they could leg it as fast as possible. If they got Charles out, they could hide in the backpack again. They just needed to break this rune.

"Edwin," Charles whispered.

"No," Edwin hissed because Charles sounded resigned, like he had given up, which was unacceptable. None of this was acceptable. "I'm not letting her take you; I'm not."

"Edwin, you need to go," Charles said as if that was something he was capable of doing. "We don't know if you're still protected from hell if Death shows up. We can't take the risk. You need to go before it's too late."

"If you're gone, it's already too late," Edwin yelled, slamming a fist into the invisible barrier keeping them apart. This was not happening; he could not let this happen. The idea that he could be left behind in a world without Charles was not a reality Edwin was even willing to face. "If there's no way back to you, then where I go doesn't matter."

The blue light began to fill the room, but Charles looked like he was panicking. "Edwin, please. I can't let you go back there. Please just go and be safe. I need you to do this for me. I can't have failing to protect you from hell as the last thing I do."

"Charles Rowland, you saved me in every possible way," Edwin whispered, which appeared to be what broke Charles.

"You saved me, too," he whispered. There was the sound of wings, and they both looked to see Death standing nearby. She was so kind-looking, and even at this moment, when Edwin was terrified, he could see why everyone had taken her hand and went with her. She was a calming presence, even if he panicked internally in every possible way.

"Edwin and Charles, it's nice to finally meet you," Death said. "You've both been running from me for a very long time."

"We have an ongoing agreement with the Lost and Found Department," Edwin managed to say, but Death just smiled at him.

"That would technically be part of my department," she replied.

"Please don't send Edwin back to hell; he doesn't deserve to be there; he never should have been there," Charles said, speaking so fast that his words were starting to run together. Death tilted her head as she walked over and looked at them. She made a humming noise and waved her hand. The rune keeping Charles in place vanished, and he practically threw himself into Edwin's arms. Edwin held onto him because this would be the last time he would have Charles in his arms. They pulled away just enough to press their foreheads together, and Edwin didn't bother to hide the fact that he was shaking.

"I love you," Charles whispered. "I don't regret a second of it."

"I don't either, and I love you too," Edwin replied.

"Boys," Death said. "Edwin isn't going to hell, but you can go to the other side where you belong. It's beautiful and peaceful."

"He wouldn't be there, so it hardly matters," Edwin said, not bothering to hide that he was snapping at Death. He didn't care; it didn't matter because this was the end of them, and he couldn't stand it.

"All of those you have helped move on have spoken of you," Death said. "They had nothing but praise for the two teenagers helping others get justice and find peace in the world. Even I cannot do that for all of them." Something about this conversation's direction made Edwin release Charles just enough so they could look at her. "I cannot interfere with the mortal world; I cannot get them justice, but you can, and you do. You do what even the Endless cannot."

"What are you saying?" Charles whispered.

"I'm saying that hiding in another room or on a window ledge was hardly going to keep me away if I really wanted to find you," Death said. "I could have told you if you stopped long enough for us to have a conversation. I know the work you do. I told the Lost and Found Department that you are needed, and they should take advantage of that, and here we are."

"You're not splitting us up?" Edwin said. This had to be a dream because he was getting everything he ever wanted. He felt like he would collapse onto the floor, and Charles was the only thing keeping him up.

"No, but when you're both ready, I'll be there to help you move on." Death walked over and touched Edwin's cheek and then Charles's with her hand. It felt like a benediction, salvation, in ways that religion never felt. "Stay safe, boys. We'll see each other again someday, maybe when you're ready to move on, maybe before." Edwin and Charles didn't have words because they just nodded wordlessly. Death smiled and, with the sound of wings, was gone.

Whatever kept them both standing gave out, and Edwin let himself collapse with Charles in his arms. They sat there, surrounded by broken pieces of iron, holding each other until the sun finally rose.

Charles was having a hard time stringing together any coherent thoughts. So much had happened in just the last couple of days that he thought his brain was going to explode or he was going to run into the game closet at the office and never come out. When Edwin ran off by himself when Charles was trying to fight off his father, it was one of the most terrifying moments of his life, and his father saw his fear.

"I knew you were one of them," his father hissed as Charles tried to keep himself from being stabbed with an iron knife. "I should have beaten you more; I should have left you in that basement to rot." Charles refused to respond to any of it, mainly because he couldn't find the right words. In life, he couldn't stand up to his father, and now, in death, it was the same thing. He was still the scared little boy who flinched when his father moved a certain way.

The pain from the knife was blinding, but Johanna had managed to get ahold of his father. However, she couldn't banish him with another ghost in the room. Edwin appeared unharmed, and they got out of the room. He saw the red lights of hell and knew that his father was gone for good. Charles also knew he had to see his mum, and he wasn't sure what he wanted to find when he got there.

The complete absence of his own existence in the house he was born in stung, and seeing his mother mourning his father like he was a man worth shedding tears over cut deep. She loved and still loved him, even after everything he had done. Edwin was there every step of the way and let Charles lean on him when he felt like he was too weak to stand. Charles also knew that he was flinching whenever Edwin went to touch him; he knew he was jumping at loud noises, but he couldn't make himself stop. It left him eventually when he first died, and Charles hoped it would happen again.

Quentin locking him behind a barrier so all Charles could do was watch Edwin fight for his afterlife was the kind of scenario that made Charles wonder if he and Edwin ever really escaped hell. No matter how loud he screamed or how hard he slammed his fists into the barrier, nothing helped, and when Quentin said Death was coming to collect him, Charles collapsed to the ground. He tried to get Edwin to leave, he couldn't risk his partner getting sent back to hell, but Edwin was too fucking stubborn and refused to go.

He had caught brief sightings of Death over the years, but being in her presence was calming and peaceful, even if Charles felt like his entire world was ending. She broke the rune that was holding him in place, and Charles wrapped his arms around Edwin. If they were going to be separated, this was the last thing Charles wanted embedded into his very essence. She wasn't separating them; if anything, she seemed a little amused and respected their work. Death said she wasn't going to take them until they were ready and vanished.

Charles wasn't sure how long he and Edwin had sat on the floor of the school, just holding each other. The sun came up, so it had been hours, but Charles felt like his brain had the consistency of baby food. Every atom of his being felt exhausted in a way that dead shouldn't feel; that was concerning, but judging from how Edwin looked at him, he wasn't the only one.

"He's still out there," Edwin said softly.

"Yeah, right, asshole that he is," Charles replied. "We're about to get an earful from pretty much everyone, aren't we." Johanna insisted they not go after Quentin without her, and she seemed like the type that would yell at them. Hob had all the trappings of a man who mastered a "not angry, just disappointed" face. Niko and Crystal would yell at them for being stupid in general and not taking advantage of the help put in front of them. Jenny would probably yell at them for making Crystal and Niko angry. Thomas probably wouldn't yell at them, but he also wasn't keen on talking to them anytime soon.

"Yes, that seems likely," Edwin agreed. "He didn't stay to see you or me get taken, so there is a chance that he believes he has won. For the first time, we have the upper hand on him. Perhaps, if Johanna and Hob are still willing to help us, we can use that to our advantage."

"We aren't hiding from Death, so we don't have to worry about their connections to the Endless," Charles said. He did not like the idea of being around anyone connected to the Endless. While Johanna might have said that the Endless didn't interact much, it wasn't a risk either of them was willing to take. "He wanted to isolate us like my dad did to my mum so we wouldn't have any help."

"Yes, and I believe it's time for us to start accepting help again now that the identity of our stalker is no longer unknown," Edwin replied. They helped each other up and carefully avoided all of the iron in the room. Charles grabbed his bag, and they made their way out of the cafeteria and into the school. Finding a bathroom with a mirror that returned them to the extra flat in The New Inn wasn't hard. It was early, but Charles felt their absence didn't go unnoticed. He was right because Johanna and Hob glared at them the second they phased through the door.

"Where the hell were you? Did you go alone even though I specifically told you not to do that?" Johanna snapped. "What happened to listening to your elders?"

"If we're being technical, I believe you are the youngest in the room," Edwin replied because, for Edwin, being technically right was the best kind of right. Johanna, however, looked deeply unimpressed. Hob reached over and touched her arm, which seemed to calm her down a little.

"You knew we wanted to help; why didn't you come and get us?" Hob asked.

"He threatened everyone," Charles explained. "And we didn't know what he would do if he saw we brought back up." He glanced at his partner to see if they would talk about this. "Your connection to the Endless made us nervous, and we didn't trust you completely."

"And what changed?" Johanna asked.

"Your connection to the Endless is no longer something that concerns us, but Quentin did get away," Edwin replied. "However, I do think that he believes he won, and that could put us at an advantage."

"We'd like to accept your help this time if you're still willing to give it," Charles said. Hob and Johanna looked at each other and smiled.

"Tell us everything that happened and let's nail this asshole," Johanna said.

+++

It turned out that they were very fortunate that Johanna and Hob were forgiving and wanted to help them, but Charles also knew that the worst of the tongue-lashing would come from the girls once they all reunited. They didn't know what kind of reach Quentin had regarding his abilities and were trying to figure out a way to end this once and for all. Edwin jumped back to the office and handed the paper with the addresses to Johanna and Hob.

"That's why we did not come to you for help," Edwin explained.

"Yes, I imagine him saying he knows exactly where everyone is can be threatening," Johanna replied. "I have to wonder if he knows who he is threatening, though."

"Do magic users gossip or share stories? Is that how he heard of you?" Charles asked because Johanna was properly terrifying, and he could understand why Quentin should be afraid of her once he knew what was coming. Johanna, however, smiled; it was the kind of smile you could cut yourself on.

"I never said I was talking about me," she said, looking at Hob. He frowned for a moment, and then it dawned on him.

"Oh, yeah, he's going to be very cross about that," Hob said. Charles wondered if this was how Crystal and Niko felt being in a room with him and Edwin because it was quite clear he was only hearing half of the conversation.

"Care to fill us in on this conversation, or should Charles and I start to guess who and what you're referring to?" Edwin asked.

"The Endless aren't supposed to be directly involved with human affairs, but my continued existence proves they are very much involved," Hob explained. "Dream doesn't like to get involved; he's a stickler about following the rules, but he did very much involve himself when dealing with a man named Richard Madoc."

"The story is long and complicated, but the short version is that Dream does not take kindly to those that threaten or harm the people he cares about," Johanna said. "He's also wonderfully creative when it comes to punishments. That being said, he can be a bit elusive at times, so it would be best if we didn't wait for him to come and instead dealt with this ourselves. Dream will come if and when he wants to, and rest assured, if he does, Quentin will be punished for threatening Hob and me. Once we explain what he did to you boys and those you care about, I think he might make it worse if he sees that we care about you."

Charles wasn't sure how he felt about another one of the Endless having any sort of opinion on them. He knew that Edwin had briefly met Despair in hell, and she mentioned that they were "friends." Death had said she wouldn't split them up, but Charles didn't want to test that theory if possible and decided it would still be best to stay out of her way. Now, Johanna and Hob wanted to alert another Endless that they were around. He didn't like it; it felt a lot like hell in the sense that the Endless were something he couldn't fight off. Edwin didn't look thrilled either, but Charles knew they both wanted this done and over with. Quentin had stolen enough from them.

"Right now, he believes he won," Edwin said. "Either both of us were sent away, or Charles was, and he will no doubt believe that I would have saved myself when given the opportunity because that is what a man like him believes love is. We know that he has runes that are attempting to bring people back from the afterlife, so I should seek him out and demand those runes and his research. It's a reckless thing to do, which is why I believe it will work."

"Yes, that seems like it would work," Charles replied. They discussed a few more things before Johanna and Hob said they were heading downstairs to get something to eat. Edwin and Charles stayed behind as Charles tried to settle his nerves. They hadn't had any time to figure out any of this. They had gone from one thing to another, stressing him out even more.

"We can't be seen together," Edwin said softly. "We cannot risk Quentin finding out that he failed. The man is mad, and we don't know what he could do if he found out he lost."

"I don't like the idea of you confronting him alone," Charles replied, but he sighed heavily. "It's a good plan because if you were taken away from me and I didn't know you were at peace, I'd do something stupid like hunt down the person stalking us for answers."

"It's more of that poetic justice that Quentin seems to think he's getting." Edwin leaned back on the couch, but Charles could see how tense he was. "I believe I heard Niko refer to it as 'main character syndrome,' and if we think about this like a novel or a film, Quentin does seem to believe he is the main character." Charles reached over and took Edwin's hand into his. They were both trembling, and it hadn't passed when Hob and Johanna joined them with plates of food not long after.

+++

To the surprise of no one, it didn't take long for Quentin to start lurking in places where he thought Edwin might be. He was brazen enough to walk into The New Inn one early afternoon just after they opened. He had a drink and acted like he had no idea who Hob was, as Hob acted like he had no idea who this man was. Charles disliked this as any time it took for this man to catch on was time he had to stay behind while Edwin was out and about. Johanna also went home, which left Charles very much alone with his thoughts in Hob's flat.

His thoughts were the last thing he wanted to be left, though. In some sick ways, he wanted to go to the police station and see if any progress was made on her father's case. Charles wanted to see his mother again and see if she might integrate him back into the house now that his father was gone. The idea that she wouldn't try to bring back his memory and that she was fine with his erasure was another one of those moments Charles didn't want to deal with. Johanna left him some books that he was going through to see if he could improve his cricket bat some more, but he couldn't focus on it.

"This is not who I was expecting to find in this flat," a voice said from behind him, and Charles nearly jumped out of his skin. His cricket bat was in hand, and he was met with what he could only assume was another one of the Endless. There was something about them that was just off; Edwin referred to it as the uncanny valley, like they had all of the trappings of a human being, but something was missing there. Only one of the Endless would turn up to Hob's apartment unannounced, and that was Dream.

"If you're looking for Hob, he's downstairs. Someone didn't turn up for a shift, and he's helping," Charles said, and if anyone asked, his voice did not shake, not even a little.

"I know where he is," Dream replied as he tilted his head. It felt like he was looking through Charles. "I'm wondering why a ghost that my sister should have picked up a long time ago is sitting in his flat."

"It's kind of a long story," Charles started, very much hoping that Dream would take the hint and ask Hob to explain it. However, he just raised an unimpressed eyebrow and stared at Charles. "Which I guess I'll take the time to tell you." This was how Charles spent the afternoon explaining the events of the last couple of weeks to Dream of the Endless and trying not to squirm too much under his impressive stare. Charles remembered what Johanna had said about Dream being very unhappy that someone had threatened her and Hob, and when Charles got to that portion of the story, Dream's entire expression changed. He went from mostly stoic to a rage that made Charles want to run in the other direction as fast as he could.

"So what do you plan to do once you lure this man into the open?" Dream asked, and wasn't that the fucking question of the day. Despite being dead, Edwin and Charles weren't exactly thrilled at the prospect of committing murder. Johanna seemed much more amendable to the cold-blooded murder angle. Hob, however, thought there was perhaps a way to point Scottland Yard in the right direction regarding one of the killings and see if they could do anything to turn off his magic while doing so.

"Edwin seems to think he's going to bite much quicker than anyone thinks," Charles said after explaining the options they had come up with. "He's going to love the idea of seeing Edwin desperate to bring me back like he was desperate to bring Lizzie back. He knows, and he knows we know, that the runes won't work, and he won't be able to resist giving Edwin materials he knows aren't going to work."

"You managed to find yourself quite the interesting enemy," Dream said. "This performance and facade he is putting on are things that I have seen before, and they are always a mask for weakness. It is the mark of a true coward that he was so willing to force his desires on an innocent woman who said, 'no,' and then turned that ire onto two children he believes wronged him." Charles blinked because he hadn't thought of himself and Edwin as children for a long time. They had been around for decades, but in many ways, he supposed they were still children.

"Not sure if 'interesting' is the word I'd use, but that about sums it up," Charles replied.

"I have a particular dislike of men who seek to control and bind unwilling women for their own selfish needs," Dream said. Charles was not an idiot. There was something there that ran so much deeper than anything they had spoken about, but he wasn't about to touch that with a ten-foot pole. "I am needed elsewhere right now," Dream said with a frown as he stood up. Charles thought he would have waited for Hob to join them, but apparently not. It was good to meet another of my sister's favored souls." He was gone in a whirl of sand before Charles could say a word. The only evidence he had been there at all was a few tiny grains of sand left on the carpet, and he just stared at them until Hob came back upstairs.

"Why does the teenage ghost in my flat look like he just saw a ghost?" Hob asked as he followed Charles's line of sight. "Ah, I think I understand now," he said as Hob knelt down and slowly began picking up the sand grains. Charles watched him do this and add the sand to a small vile with other grains of sand in it. "Do I need to have words with him about interacting with people who aren't Johanna and me?"

"What? No, it was all right, I guess. He's a bit intense," Charles said, and Hob gave him a look that screamed, 'That's an understatement.' "He wanted to know why a ghost was sitting in your flat, so I told him what was going on. You were right. He did seem really mad when he found out that Quentin threatened you and Johanna, but he didn't stay either."

"I'm sure I'll be hearing all about that," Hob muttered when Edwin jumped through the mirror and stared at them with wide eyes.

"It worked; he's set up a meeting place to give the materials to bring a soul back from the afterlife," Edwin said. Charles clenched his fists and tried not to panic too much. They would have backup this time; they weren't going in alone, and they had the upper hand on Quentin for the first time. The tiny issue was that they hadn't reached a consensus on how to deal with him just yet.

+++

Edwin looked particularly disturbed by the fact that Dream of the Endless was in the same room as Charles, but there wasn't much they could do about it. Johanna joined them once Hob told her that Edwin had managed to set up a meeting time. Now, they just had to wait for her to join them so they could figure out what to do.

"I need to tell you something that I am a little ashamed of," Edwin said as they waited for Johanna. Charles couldn't think of anything Edwin had done recently that would warrant shame, and his expression must have said as much. "We try not to kill people in cold blood, but I must confess, I want to kill Quentin. He made you suffer, he hurt Niko's mother, he tried to destroy Crystal's life, and he tried to take you away from me; I cannot find it in myself to extend any amount of forgiveness toward him."

"And you're ashamed of that? Why?" Charles asked, more than a little bewildered. "Mate, I want to smash his head in with my bat. If you're ashamed, then I should be, too."

"I'm not going to try and lecture you boys on revenge or anything like that," Hob replied. "I've been around long enough to tell you that some people just shouldn't be left in the world." Charles agreed with that, and it was becoming increasingly likely that they would be taking a life tonight. He just wondered which one of them would end up doing it. Johanna joined them not long after as Edwin explained where and when Quentin told Edwin to meet so he could hand over the documents.

"Dream was here? Oh, this is going to be interesting," Johanna said. They didn't want to spook Quentin, so having Johanna go with Edwin wasn't going to happen, and they wanted him to think that Charles was gone. They were the "heavy hitters" of this operation, so it was decided that Hob would accompany Edwin to the meeting. It would be a logical step considering everything that had happened, and it was clear that he knew about Hob, at least on some level.

"I'll keep an eye on him," Hob said to Charles quietly, trying to soothe Charles's worries without vocalizing them. The meeting was just across the street from the office because Quentin apparently wanted all of them to know that he was in charge. It took some work, but after Edwin and Hob left, Charles mirror-hopped and kept moving between buildings to prevent Quentin from seeing him. Johanna found a spot with a decent vantage point of the meeting. It was in an alley, which no one was happy about, but Quentin might have thought he would be safer in public.

"I'll do it," Johanna said as they silently waited. Charles didn't ask what she was staying; she would do it, and he appreciated her offering. As much as he and Edwin might want to get personal revenge on Quentin, it wasn't something they wanted to carry around for the rest of their afterlives either. Johanna drew a circle on the ground that cloaked their presence, and they were hidden in the dark corner of the alley. It appeared Quentin would be the last to arrive as Edwin and Hob joined them. Neither group acknowledged the other. Ten minutes after the scheduled time, Quentin finally appeared.

"You're late," Edwin said. The tone of his voice was something Charles had only heard a few times; he sounded desperate and afraid. It was all pretend, and Edwin was just fine; he needed to remind himself of that.

"And you're not alone," Quentin replied as he looked at Hob. Hob smirked but didn't say anything; he stood casually with his hands in his pockets like he didn't care in the world.

"Considering our history, I'm not sure why you're surprised. Now, hand over the things you promised me immediately," Edwin snapped.

"Have some patience, kid; you know what these things can do. I know you've looked into them," Quentin said. "Are you really so willing to bind your little boyfriend to yourself for the rest of your afterlives? Are you willing to bring back some twisted version of him? None of this sounds very heroic of you or like justice."

"I would do anything in this world and any other to bring Charles back to me, hence why I am standing here, speaking to you. Now, hand over the material." Edwin took a deep breath, like he was trying to calm himself down. "You got what you wanted; you took him away from me, and you won. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Johanna touched his hand and moved her boot to drop the circle that was cloaking them. Quentin seemed to relax, and he looked so damn pleased with himself. His guard was down, and he truly thought he had won. Charles clenched his bat as tightly as possible and looked forward to proving him wrong. Johanna scuffed the edge of the rune with her boot. Charles felt the entire thing fall, and he ran. The look of surprise on Quentin's face was one that Charles would cherish for a long time. He struggled to fight back, but he was quickly overwhelmed by them. He may have cast an imposing shadow over all of them, but now Charles could see the weak and cowardly man before them.

"I'm sure this is the moment when he is going to try and beg for mercy," Johanna said. Her hand was shaking just as little as she was the one holding Quentin in the binding spell. "You don't deserve any mercy from anyone, but specifically these two boys."

"What kind of coward goes after actual children in some grand scheme of revenge?" Hob snapped. Charles glanced at Edwin, who seemed as surprised as he was by all the vitriol. They had spent so much time just relying on each other that Charles thought they were a little surprised when someone else appeared to care about them as much as they did.

"He's too dangerous to keep around with that magic," Charles said.

"Even without his magic, he's too dangerous," Edwin said. I can't think of anything more dangerous for the women of this city than a man like this." Quentin stuttered words like he thought he could convince them to spare his life, but Charles knew there wasn't any going back for this man, not after what he had done.

"I couldn't agree more," a familiar voice said from just down the alley. They all turned and saw Dream of the Endless walking slowly toward them. He had the same expression on his face that he had when Charles told him about Quentin threatening Johanna and Hob and that Quentin was a man who didn't seem to understand that no meant no. Quentin immediately looked like he was seeing the devil, while Johanna and Hob both smiled warmly.

"I had a feeling you'd turn up," Hob said. "I heard Charles filled you in, but you should know the magic he was working on is the same one Burgess used in the 1900s." Charles wasn't sure how it was possible, but that made Dream even angrier. "We just got him to hand over everything he had." Edwin looked a little nervous when Dream turned his attention to him, but he stepped forward and offered Dream the books and papers without flinching.

"Thank you, Edwin Payne; I will ensure this is kept somewhere secure where mortal hands can no longer touch it. These spells and modifications are barbaric," Dream said.

"I was planning on just killing him and letting hell take care of him," Johanna said, "But I have a feeling you might have something else in mind for him even if Lucifer does have a claim on his soul." Dream turned his attention to Quentin, who looked so afraid that he could not say anything. Charles carefully walked over and pressed his arm against Edwin's because he had some experience with the kind of intense energy that Dream of the Endless has.

"The dreams and nightmares of a man desperate to see seen and be loved by someone," Dream whispered, almost too quiet for anyone to hear. "You studied magic to become powerful so people would see and flock to you. You wanted something to control them. You wanted their focus and their adoration. The dreams of a man so desperate for the attention of women that he would ignore their dismissal because he claimed to know better.

"Your magic is lacking, and that knowledge is easily taken away and locked away in your mind," Dream continued. "That desperation to be seen, beloved, that cannot be locked away. You were willing to distort an innocent woman's soul to bind her to yourself for selfish gains; that is how much you need people to see you. That's why you did this silly little revenge scheme; it made you the sole focus on these two boys, and you reveled in it. You think I'm going to kill you? Or I'm going to let someone here kill you, but I won't. Instead, you will spend the rest of your days without being perceived. People will look right through you; you will have no interactions with anyone; they will not feel your touch or hear your voice, and you will spend the rest of your life trying and failing to get anyone to even make eye contact with you. And no one will."

Dream snapped his fingers, and Quentin crumbled to the ground. Charles didn't know how to explain how he knew Dream was telling the truth and that this would be the last time anyone perceived Quentin, but it was like he was getting harder and harder to focus on the longer they looked. Within two minutes, there wasn't anyone there, and just like that, he faded from their afterlives like smoke.

Edwin knew, on some level, that Quentin was on the ground and right in front of them. However, he couldn't see him; he just wasn't there, and the presence that had been hanging over himself and Charles for so long felt like it had faded. Somehow, they were standing before yet another of the Endless that had punished a member of the living for transgressions against them. While Quentin did threaten Hob and Johanna, that was just a threat, and neither of them was hurt. Dream invoked their names and Lizzie's name when he gave that judgment. Yet another member of the Endless knew who they were, and Edwin did not know if that was a good thing.

"I had a feeling you'd come up with something," Johanna said as she slipped her hands into her jacket pocket.

"I did not want any of you to get blood on your hands if I could avoid it," Dream replied.

"He's really gone then?" Charles asked, and he sounded so young at that moment that it broke Edwin's heart a little.

"He's right here still, and he will sleep for a little while, but he has no access to spells anymore, and even then, it wouldn't matter. You have to have a target or something to put a spell or rune on, and he cannot target anything because nothing can perceive him aside from myself or another of the Endless. His health remains and he can keep himself alive for as little or as long as he wants to. I could have left him his magic, but I dislike people who seek out binding spells like this one," Dream said as he looked at the papers and book with obvious disgust.

"You going to take that home or let Johanna add it to her little library of horrors?" Hob asked. Dream looked like he was thinking about it for a moment until he stepped forward and handed the spells back to Edwin.

"Edwin Payne, Charles Rowland, you are favored by my sister, and anyone under her favor is someone I know I can trust with knowledge like this, so I believe, as a sign of good faith between us, you may keep this work with the conditions that you never use any of the magic listed here. The way that he changed those runes could be important to you later, and I believe you should have it. You were the ones affected by him the most," Dream replied. Judging from Hob and Johanna's expressions, they did not expect Dream to make that decision. Edwin carefully took the books and papers and held onto them tightly.

"It is clear to me that you have a personal connection to this magic, and I will make sure no one ever uses it again, and I will consult it only as research to bring people justice," Edwin said. He sounded oddly stilted, even for himself, but he had no idea how to act around one of the Endless. His time with Despair was quick, and he was too frazzled by hell to really take any of it in. His time with Death was intense, and he might have snapped at her, which was not one of his smarter ideas. Johanna and Hob looked a little amused, which wasn't surprising, but what was surprising was how amused Dream looked by him.

"I can see why you two decided to help them," Dream said as he turned to Johanna and Hob. "I have matters to attend to. Can I trust you two to keep out of trouble for a little while?"

"Me, yes, her, absolutely not," Hob replied without missing a beat, but Johanna didn't look offended by that. Their dynamic was fascinating to watch. Edwin was uncomfortable watching other people kiss, so he averted his eyes when Dream kissed them before vanishing in a cloud of sand. In an extremely practiced move, Johanna and Hob began to gather the small grains of sand left on the ground. Johanna pulled out another of those vials and added the grains to the very small pile.

Edwin had a working knowledge of the occult and magic, and if there was one thing he knew, it was that the body was the most powerful conduit for spells. Names held immense power, but the body was even more powerful. If the grains were part of Dream's body, he understood that Hob and Johanna were doing something rather sweet for the entity they were both in a relationship with. It made Edwin reach out and take Charles's hand into his own. Once the grains were collected, they were both on their feet and looking at them expectedly.

"I'm sure you boys would love to get to your office, so why don't we go collect your casework? You can show Hob all of the weird things on your shelves while we put it all away," Johanna suggested. Typically, Edwin's first reaction was to say 'no' and to keep people who weren't clients out of the office whenever possible. Right now, Edwin was even more keen to keep outsiders away from the place where they should feel safest, but he didn't want that at all. Charles was looking at him and nodded slightly.

"You have way cooler stuff, but we've managed to gather some wicked things, and I have even more in my bag," Charles said. He spent the walk back to The New Inn explaining the pocket universe in his backpack to Hob and Johanna, Edwin's hand securely in his own.

+++

Johanna and Hob enjoyed spending a little time in their office, but Edwin was grateful when all of their casework was back where it was supposed to be, the book from Dream was in a secure place, and they were left to their own devices yet again. He was exhausted in a way that the dead weren't supposed to be, and Edwin let Charles pull him onto the couch so they could lie there together, just holding one another, as the weight of everything that had just happened settled. They had two new allies, yet he was still afraid, and he remembered telling Charles that Quentin had stolen his sense of peace. He was beginning to think that Quentin stole his sense of safety because he kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. He wanted to keep his worries to himself. If he was going to try to be a good partner, Edwin needed to learn when to say when things were bothering him.

"Do you think we'll feel safe again?" he asked.

"Yes," Charles replied without a hint of hesitation as if it were common knowledge and inevitable. "I know we will because he was living at the end of the day, and we'll be around much longer. We have all the time in the world to get safe again, and now more people are helping us achieve that. You're going to feel safe again." Edwin noted how Charles went from saying "we" to "you" but decided it wasn't worth commenting on. He knew what Charles was saying, and even if that feeling to run lingered, they would be okay.

It took some time before either of them moved from that spot on the couch, and Edwin was content to let time pass without a care in the world. However, he knew that they couldn't keep the agency closed forever, that Niko and Crystal deserved to know everything that had happened, and that it was time for them to come home. However, that little voice in the back of his head that had been whispering since they had reconnected with Jenny made Edwin hesitate.

"Do you ever think they would be better off without us in their lives?" he asked softly. They were about to step through the mirror, mere seconds away from seeing Crystal again, and now Edwin was rooted in place, unable to move.

"What do you mean?" Charles asked.

"When we reconnected with Jenny, she said she hadn't had any trouble ever since we were out of her life," Edwin explained. "Would they be better off, safer, without us? Niko's mother was hurt because of our involvement in her life, Crystal's life was nearly ruined, and all of the progress she made with her parents was undone because of our involvement in her life. What if keeping away from them is the logical thing to do for their own good?"

"Edwin, love," Charles said patiently, but Edwin didn't even realize how fast he was talking. "Crystal and Niko have known what they were getting into for a while. This isn't new information to them. That little voice telling you all of that shit? That's Quentin talking, not you, because that's what he wanted. He didn't want us to have anyone, and if we push the girls away, we'll have two fewer people." Edwin wanted to argue that the sensible thing would be to stay away, but Charles gave him that look that said whatever he would say would be dumb. "If it will make you feel better, when we tell them everything that happened, we can let them choose for themselves, all right?"

"Fine," Edwin replied, even though it wasn't okay because he knew Crystal and Niko. They weren't going to make the right decision for their own good, and they almost lost Niko once; Edwin wasn't sure if they could handle losing her again. Edwin led Charles through the mirror to the hotel where Crystal stayed with her parents. As soon as they phased through the door where Crystal was sitting, she was on her feet and sprinting across the room. Edwin still wasn't entirely fond of hugs, but when Crystal threw her arms around both of them and held them tightly, he let it go, at least for a moment. Edwin stayed for as long as he could, and Charles seamlessly moved her arms around him so Crystal could cling to him like a lifeline.

"I can't believe you had some random person text me that you were okay, you complete assholes," Crystal said. She sounded angry, but she also sounded like she was moments away from crying. Crystal pulled away from Charles and glared at them. "Do you have any idea how terrified I've been for you both, and you go radio silent despite your ability to jump through fucking mirrors?"

"I can assure you it was done for your own benefit," Edwin said, and judging by the look Crystal gave him, that was the wrong thing to say.

"I want an explanation, and I want it now," she said. Crystal was owed that, so they sat down and caught her up on everything that had happened after she left England with her parents. Edwin let Charles do most of the talking because he was closer to Crystal, and she might have been more inclined to listen if it had come from him. She frowned deeply when they got to Quentin, fading from view as if he never existed at all. "So that's it? He just can't interact with the world anymore?"

"Yes," Edwin replied. "The only ones that can perceive or interact with him in any way are the Endless. He could be standing right next to us, screaming at the top of his lungs, but there isn't anything he can do about it. I also have a theory that it extends to objects, so he cannot enter any buildings. So he is trapped out in the world with wandering being the only option."

"That intense, to say the least," Crystal said as she reached out and took Charles's hand. "I'm not going to say I'm sorry about your dad because he was awful, but I am sorry you had to face him that way."

"I'll be all right," Charles replied. Crystal smiled and then looked between the two of them. Neither of them mentioned their new relationship dynamic when they were filling her in about everything that had happened. Edwin wasn't entirely sure how he felt about anyone else knowing, but he also wasn't ashamed of what he and Charles were doing, and he didn't want to hide from the few people he got to interact with regularly. Crystal, however, apparently didn't need to be told because she just knew as she looked at them.

"So, you two finally figured all of this out?" she asked as she gestured between them. Charles looked at Edwin like he was the one who got to make the decision about this.

"I believe you once compared us to a married couple when we first met, but now that comparison has some more merit," Edwin replied. That was not the way Crystal or Charles were expecting him to reveal this because they both choked on laughter. It was good to see both of them smiling, and when Charles leaned over to rest his forehead on Edwin's shoulder, he reveled in it. Crystal was watching them with an expression on her face that could only be called 'fond.'

"Anyway, we think things should be clearing up for you now that Quentin is gone," Charles said once he stopped laughing. "We want you to come back because we might have told a little white lie to the Night Nurse about being unable to take cases until you came back, and she's going to figure out that something is up eventually."

"You lied to the Night Nurse," Crystal stated. It was a statement, not a question, and she stared at the ceiling like it could somehow provide her answers. "You two cannot be left to your own devices, clearly, or you'll do something incredibly stupid like that." Edwin wanted to defend themselves by saying it was their best idea at the time, but she held up a hand to silence them before they said a word. "My parents have been working with their lawyers to get all of this figured out, and I'll check in with them to see if I can go home. I want to go home."

It was nice to chat with Crystal, but they needed to head back to London eventually because they also had to check in with Niko. When Edwin mentioned that they hadn't done so yet, Crystal looked like she wanted to throw something at the two of them and then yelled that they needed to get their asses to Japan right now. She nearly shoved them through a mirror, and when they stumbled into Niko's mother's home, they were practically tripping over their own feet.

There was something that they didn't know as they arrived at Niko's mother's place, and that was just how close to a near-death experience she had. If she did nearly die, then there was a chance she would be able to see them, and that would mean a lot of explanations that Edwin wasn't sure he wanted to do right now. They got lucky that Niko was the one who found them first, and she all but jumped into Edwin's arms. If Charles was his main exception when it came to touch, Niko was the second, and everyone else could keep their distance. He thought that Crystal would get there eventually, but not yet, and he let Niko squeeze him so tightly that he wouldn't have been able to breathe if he was alive. She eventually released him and did the same to Charles.

"You're back," she breathed. "I was worried when I got that weird text. I thought that I should come back and try to help, but Crystal told me that was probably not a good idea since the man who hurt my mom was still running around London. If you're here, does that mean it's safe again?"

"Yes, it's safe again. I think we need to tell you everything that happened," Edwin replied. This time, Charles let him explain everything that had happened. Niko also didn't look very happy about them keeping her away or lying to the Night Nurse, but she didn't say anything. She nodded as they spoke and watched them carefully.

"I want to know when Charles figured himself out," was the first thing Niko said after Edwin explained exactly what the Endless was and how he thought the punishment on Quentin would work. Considering the manga and anime she watched, Edwin wasn't surprised that this was the first question she asked because Niko was a romantic at heart.

"When we had to go on the run," Charles replied, reaching over and taking Edwin's hand. "I think I've known for a long time, but I felt really backed into a corner with Quentin breaking into the office, and I didn't want to have regrets if the worst happened. I think it's working out in my favor."

"That's certainly one way to put it," Edwin replied. Niko looked like she wanted to ask more questions, and someone called out her name. She smiled at the two of them and stood up to go and help her mother. Neither of them followed her, and Edwin was okay with waiting for Niko to return, but she popped her head back into the room.

"Are you coming? I've told her all about you, and I want her to meet you," she said. Edwin glanced at Charles, who shrugged, and they both stood up to follow Niko into another room in the house. If Niko was telling the truth, and she didn't have a reason to lie, then Edwin wouldn't have to spend the next couple of hours trying to talk down a terrified Japanese woman. Niko spoke to her mother softly as they walked into the room. She still looked very weak, and her arm and leg were still in casts, but the cuts and bruises had all faded, and she was looking straight at them. The accident was worse than they thought if she could see them. "Mom, these are my friends I told you about who saved me in Port Townsend. This is Edwin, and that's Charles."

"They don't look like ghosts," her mother said. Edwin stepped to his left, phasing through a chair and then back. She jumped a little and squeezed Niko's hand, but she didn't appear to have an existential crisis, which was good. "My goodness."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Charles said.

"Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Edwin said as he struggled to explain what Niko was to them. "Niko said we saved her life, but she saved ours multiple times over, and we could not be more grateful to have her in our lives."

"Is this true? You saved them? That's not what you said in the stories you told me," Niko's mother said as Niko blushed.

"I was hardly a help--" Niko started.

"We wouldn't be here, together, without her," Edwin said. There was so much history here that he couldn't even begin to explain it, but Niko's mother was just as perceptive as her daughter, and she nodded.

"Niko came back to me so much brighter, and I know I have you boys and Crystal to thank for that, so I'll need you to look after her when she returns to London," she said.

"You have our word," Charles said. She nodded, and Niko began to speak with her mother in Japanese. It was just a little too fast for Edwin to keep up. Niko grinned as she turned to them.

"I'll come home once she can get around on her own, I promise," Niko said, and Niko didn't make promises lightly. She hugged them tightly and sent them through the mirror and back to the office. It seemed that both of the girls were choosing to come back despite the danger, which wasn't surprising. As much as Edwin wanted to put it off, they had to deal with the Night Nurse, and he hoped that Death's favor would help if she were highly cross with them.

+++

At the end of the day, Edwin could only come up with one way to explain to the Night Nurse what had happened; he made a case file. It was sometimes hard to think about what he and Charles went through and to think of it like a case because that's what it was; even if he didn't think of it that way, it was easier. So when they returned to the office, Edwin sat at his desk and began to put everything together. It meant bringing all of the cases that were part of this into one and tying everything together in a neat little bow. It still didn't feel real, and he wasn't sure if it would ever feel real.

"I think the longer we wait, the angrier she's going to be," Charles said as Edwin stared at the extremely thick file in his hand and how he made no attempt to call the Night Nurse. He was stalling; Charles knew he was stalling, and judging from how Charles was fidgeting, he was also stalling. Hearing from Death that they would be okay was one thing, but the Lost and Found Department felt different. From everything Edwin had seen, it seemed like a bureaucratic nightmare, and their conversation with Death seemed like something that could get lost in red tape.

"I have a Plan B," Edwin said because, of course, he did, and that was a little spell that would probably stun the Night Nurse long enough that they could sprint through a mirror and spend the rest of their afterlives running from her until she learned that they were "favored" by Death. The only problem with that plan was that it meant abandoning everything from their friends to their allies to the agency and maybe even being detectives, and those were not things Edwin was keen to lose. It was just his desire not to lose. Charles was bigger than all of that.

Charles seemed to sense that Edwin was getting lost in his head, so he gently took the file from Edwin's hand and placed it on the desk. He pulled Edwin up to his feet so they stood nearly nose to nose. It was still a little amazing to Edwin that just being close to Charles like this was enough to settle some of the tension in his body. Charles didn't say a word, just stayed close and began to carefully straighten Edwin's clothes so everything was in its proper place. It was ironic that Edwin's response was to yank Charles forward and mess everything up again but now wasn't the time.

Once his clothing was in perfect shape, Charles closed the distance between them and softly kissed Edwin's lips. It was sweet, almost chaste, and had the added benefit of knocking nearly every coherent thought straight out of his skull. Judging from the expression on Charles's face, he seemed to know precisely the effect he was having on Edwin. Edwin rolled his eyes fondly, and they separated without exchanging words, but after an entire conversation. They walked to the center of the office; Edwin had the file in hand, and Charles's bat was just out of reach. They couldn't put it off any longer, and Edwin did the summoning spell that would put her in a bad mood.

"Well, look who decided to finally clock in for work," the Night Nurse said as she appeared before them. Edwin was quite proud that he was not startled when she snapped into existence like that, but it was close. "You boys haven't been fulfilling your end of this bargain, and it's time to start explaining yourselves before I lose what's left of my patience and cart you off to processing."

"This explains everything in detail," Edwin said, ignoring the processing comment, but he could see that Charles was not happy to hear it. The Night Nurse took the large file and did not appear happy. "I believed it would be easier if I presented the case that took us away from the work we have been doing for the Lost and Found Department." The Night Nurse looked decidedly unimpressed with both of them, but she took the file, sat on their couch, and began reading.

It would take some time for her to go through everything, so Edwin felt okay going over to his desk and sitting down while Charles took his place on the table, watching her. The Night Nurse appeared to be getting increasingly angry as she read the file, but Edwin knew what part she was at when she looked up at them.

"You boys thought lying to me was a good idea?" she asked.

"It was the best idea we had at the time because we didn't trust you to decide we weren't worth the trouble, and that isn't happening," Charles replied evenly. The two of them didn't get along well since the incident at Port Townsend, and Edwin wondered if he would have to break up an extremely ill-advised fight. The Night Nurse narrowed her eyes and continued reading the file. Edwin convertedly reached over and placed what he hoped was a comforting hand on Charles's knee.

He could tell she was approaching the end of the file when she began to make scoffing noises like she couldn't believe what she was reading. Eventually, the Night Nurse closed the file to turn her attention to the two of them.

"Are you trying to tell me that not only did you meet two of the Endless, but Death herself told you that she has purposely not sent you on your way, and Lord Morpheus did you a favor and entrusted text he considered dangerous to you?" she asked, as if they were telling a joke and were going to admit to her that they were making the whole thing up.

"Yep," Charles replied.

"This is ridiculous," the Night Nurse said as she stood and walked toward the desk. Charles was reaching for his bat, and Edwin put a hand on him to stop him from acting impulsively. "All I see here is that you two boys let personal matters not only interfere with the work you are graciously being allowed to continue with the Lost and Found Department but that your personal matters got people hurt and killed. Why in the world should I allow you both to remain here when you've caused so many problems?"

"We are favored by Death whether you like it or not," Edwin snapped. "You can go talk to your superior and see what they have to say about it because she has said we are not going anywhere until we want to. I will not stand idly by and let you threaten myself and my partner when we have done nothing wrong aside from lying by omission, which is far from a capital offense. The Lost and Found Department is run by paperwork, so go check your paperwork, and when you've found that I am correct, you may bring us some more cases to solve."

"You boys need to learn some manners," the Night Nurse said, and that was apparently the end of Charles's patience regarding this matter. His bat was in his hand, and he looked more than ready to cave her skull in if that was what it took.

"You heard him. Go check the paperwork, and then come back when you see he's right," Charles replied. No one in the room moved for what felt like a long time, and Edwin wondered if now was the time he needed to do that spell so they could run as fast as possible. The Night Nurse, it appeared, was unwilling to end up on the wrong end of Charles's bat again. She took a step back but continued to glare at them.

"Do not get comfortable, boys. I'll be back once I find that this lie about being favored by Death is uncovered." She vanished in a flash of fire, and even though Edwin knew they were in the right and weren't doing anything wrong, his first instinct was still to grab Charles and run as fast and far as possible without looking back. Edwin glanced at Charles, who looked right back at him. There was a beat of silence, and they both burst into laughter. There wasn't any other way to react to that situation because they weren't in the wrong, and Edwin had to believe it would work out in the end.

"Love, I cannot believe you just told her off like that," Charles said between giggles.

"I cannot believe you thought going for your bat was a good idea," Edwin replied. It took a moment, but they both relaxed. Edwin wanted to send a letter to Thomas to see if that would make any difference regarding their situation in Port Townsend. He wanted to return to the town at some point, but he'd avoid it if that were what Thomas wanted. They needed to tell Jenny the danger had passed, but they would keep away if she wanted. Niko and Crystal both had timelines for returning, and they could officially flip the sign on the agency door from "closed" to "open" any day now to take on new clients.

It still felt precarious, but Edwin had spent so much of his afterlife running, and as he watched Charles laugh, he was once again hit with the feeling of wanting to stay still. He felt it the first night they met, and now, decades later, Charles Rowland was still the thing that kept Edwin from giving into his baser instincts. Not that he had a problem with all of those instincts, like the one he was currently giving into when he walked directly into Charles's space and kissed him. It was still amazing to him how easy this thing between them felt. They were as in sync with this as they were with every aspect of their afterlife.

They weren't completely in sync, and they stumbled a few times, unwilling to break apart from kissing for even a moment to get to the couch. They weren't running from hell or Death; their stalker was dealt with, their friends and allies were safe, and Edwin wasn't about to stop kissing his partner unless something catastrophic happened. There were some awkward limbs here and there, but Edwin lost himself in how Charles's hands felt on his body.

"I love you," Edwin whispered against Charles's lips because it needed to be said; it always needed to be said. He didn't think he would ever get tired of saying it, and he didn't think there was a limit on how many times he could say it.

"I love you too," Charles whispered back. Eventually, Edwin found himself straddling Charles's waist and looking down at his other half. They were both breathing hard from kissing, even if they didn't need to breathe, and there was something hot in Charles's eyes that Edwin couldn't explain with words. There hadn't been time to enjoy each other since Charles's confessed his feelings, but there was time now, and maybe the couch wasn't exactly the most romantic place, this was the office, this was their sanctuary, and Edwin couldn't think of a better place to take the next step.

It was rather amusing how Charles looked like he swallowed his tongue when Edwin pulled off his jacket and began loosening his bowtie. He was peeling away the final layers as Edwin tossed the tie to the side and removed his vest so he could be laid bare, figuratively and literally, and it was breathtaking. Charles sat up so Edwin was pressed even closer to him and began to run his hands up along Edwin's sides. Edwin wasn't sure what he wanted to do now: continue to undress himself or let Charles take over, but he seemed to have other plans. He managed to sneak his hands underneath Edwin's shirt, and that touch made him gasp.

Charles was in his red polo shirt, so Edwin didn't have to deal with a jacket, and while he had seen Charles down to his singlet plenty of times, he desperately needed to see it again. Trying to undress each other was difficult because it appeared that Charles was just as unwilling to stop touching Edwin as Edwin was to stop touching Charles. However, between kisses that felt like they were all-encompassing, both of them were shirtless. Edwin wished he was better with words because he wanted to compose volumes of sonnets about how beautiful Charles Rowland was.

His thoughts were thoroughly derailed as Charles began to kiss along Edwin's jaw and down to the apparently sensitive spots on his neck. They were both hard and unconsciously beginning to slowly grind into each other like the last time they had time to themselves. Edwin thought that would be lovely to recreate, but as Charles bit the spot between his neck and shoulder, he wanted more.

"I want to touch you," Edwin said, not even recognizing the tone of his own voice.

"God, Edwin, you're going to kill me," Charles said into his skin, and Edwin opened his mouth to reply when Charles bit him again harder. "I know, we can't die again; you know what a bloody figure of speech is." Something about this being joyful was just another example of why he had nothing to be ashamed of regarding this relationship and his feelings. Edwin threaded his fingers through Charkes's hair and pulled just hard enough so they could kiss again. Charles's talented tongue was not enough to distract him, not this time, as Edwin laid the two of them back down on the couch again.

Charles seemed bound and determined to distract Edwin with his talented mouth, but Edwin would not be deterred. He wanted this too much for anything to distract him. He knew what he wanted: Charles falling apart underneath his hands. Charles was also beginning to work on the buttons of Edwin's trousers. Neither of them had any real temperature coming off of their bodies, but when Charles managed to slip a hand into Edwin's underwear and touch him, Edwin still jumped. He barely touched himself there was when he was alive or dead, so knowing that was Charles's hand was hard to comprehend.

"We can stop," Charles whispered. He seemed to be confusing how overwhelmed Edwin currently was with hesitation.

"It's overwhelming, but it's perfect because it's you," Edwin said, and he was somewhat surprised that he could form any coherent sentence. Charles smirked and pulled Edwin down for another kiss. It took a little time because his hands were shaking a little, mainly because Charles had started to move his hand, and it was hard to focus on anything else, but Edwin managed to get the button to Charles's trousers opened and slipped his hand inside. Charles gasped against his lips as their hands moved, fitting together like perfect puzzle pieces. Their kisses became little more than their lips brushing against each other as they breathed in air neither needed.

It was good; it was so good that each movement Charles made seemed to light up every dead nerve in his body. He felt like a being of pure energy, like he could power half of a city block; he felt invincible, and even as Edwin came against Charles's hand, he could have sworn they were both glowing. Edwin moved his hand differently, bit Charles's bottom lip, and got to savor the moment his partner had an orgasm. He felt Charles's body shutter against his body, and he got to watch every single micro-expression across his face as it happened.

It was the most beautiful thing Edwin had ever seen and worth every single second he had spent running toward this moment.

Edwin was not exactly inclined to move, and it appeared neither was Charles. They settled against each other, exchanged slow, deep kisses, and gently touched each other. Edwin wanted to tell Charles that he was worth every terrible circumstance, which led to their meeting in that attic that night. He wanted to tell Charles that he was worth those decades in hell because when he emerged, he got to meet the other half of his soul, and how could he begrudge the moments that got him that? Edwin knew that Charles wouldn't like that line of thinking and would spiral and get stuck on the idea that he wasn't worth seventy years in hell. If Edwin had to spend the rest of their afterlives convincing Charles that he was worth it, he would consider that to be the mission of his afterlife, even above being a detective.

"You all right, love? You're staring at me and haven't blinked for a while," Charles said, bringing Edwin back to the present.

"Yes, I'm excellent," Edwin replied.

+++

It took both of them a little time to get the motivation to move from the couch, but eventually, they were up and presentable again. After they had been gone for so long, the office needed some tidying up, and then Edwin sat with Charles to go through the absolute mountain of mail that was left for them. There were so many case requests that Edwin wasn't sure how they would ever catch up again. It made him feel behind, which was not a feeling he liked, but Charles assured him that even if they were behind, it was because of circumstances out of their control.

Crystal was the first of them to make her way back to the agency. She smiled bigger than Edwin had seen her in a very long time and seemed eager to return to work. It seemed all of the matters from before she turned her life around were settled out of court, which Crystal informed them meant that her parents paid everyone off to drop the charges. Her reputation was terrible, but Crystal didn't care about that and was willing to do the work to build it back up again by doing genuine good in the world.

Crystal needed to speak to Jenny, and Edwin and Charles went with her when she went to chat. Jenny looked conflicted as she stared at them as if she were both relieved and disappointed to see them. Edwin knew she was still leery about being around them and getting caught in the mess of the Dead Boy Detectives, so he did the only thing he could think of to extend an olive branch: He handed Jenny one of Johanna Constantine's cards. If there was anyone who could make the shop feel safe for Jenny again, it was Johanna, even if Edwin wasn't sure what he thought about the two of them being in a room together. He expected it would be explosive one way or another.

Not long after, Niko arrived with a spring in her step, a bright smile on her face, and a message from her mother telling Edwin and Charles to come and visit because she had so many questions she wanted answered. Edwin couldn't deny Niko anything, and Charles was always eager to talk to new and interesting people. Any mother who brought Niko Sasaki into this world was already infinitely more interesting than nearly anyone Edwin spoke to regularly.

Charles brought Niko and Crystal over to The New Inn to meet Hob. He reported that they all got along frighteningly well, even if Hob started lecturing the girls about ensuring they finished all of their schooling because it was so important. Edwin learned they had met Johanna when she was at Jenny's shop doing a consult. Edwin felt that Johanna and Crystal would get along well, but he was surprised at how well Johanna and Niko got along. All Johanna would say was that Niko reminded her of her girlfriend, who passed away not long ago, and that people like that needed to be fiercely protected from their world.

Edwin sat down one night and wrote a very long letter to Thomas explaining everything that had happened and what part he played in all of it. On the one hand, he knew that they didn't have anything to apologize for because none of this was their fault per se, but Edwin still felt the need to pepper in so many apologies as he wrote out everything that had happened. He told Thomas they would honor his wishes, and if that meant staying away, they would stay away. Thomas didn't reply, and Edwin stopped looking for a letter from Port Townsend after a month had passed.

It was strange that everything was truly beginning to settle, and it felt like it was back to how it was before Quentin entered their lives. He kept looking over his shoulder, waiting for him to appear out of the shadows, but he never did. Charles was also hypervigilant, as Crystal explained to him that one night was the term and that he was having a hard time accepting that they were okay.

It was an ordinary afternoon with Crystal and Niko helping them research details on a new case when the Night Nurse appeared in the middle of the room, and she looked furious. Charles was on his feet in seconds, bat in hand, as he put himself between the girls, Edwin, and the Night Nurse. If she tried to make a move against them, Charles would fight back, and Edwin didn't want to see the outcome of that fight. Charles would insist on keeping himself in front of all of them, but Edwin stood close and put a hand on Charles's arm to hopefully keep him from launching himself at the Night Nurse.

"You two have got to be the most infuriating souls I have come across in a long time," she said. "You don't understand the damage you could do to the very fabric of reality by staying here and not being in your proper place."

"I believe if Death herself says we are not any threat to the universe, then her word is the one I would like to believe," Edwin replied.

"We have permission from someone bigger and stronger than you, and you hate that," Charles said, and she narrowed her eyes at them.

"I might not be able to send you two to your proper places, but if you're not doing as you're told, as your chaperone, I am well within my rights to dole out punishments," the Night Nuse said. Edwin could hear the giggle of the spider behind him, and it felt like he was frozen. He experienced punishments in hell and could not tolerate them here. More to the point, he refuses to sit back and watch Charles get punished. Charles visibly flinched at the word "punishment," and his once steady hands began to shake.

"Oh hell no," Crystal said, and suddenly, she was between the boys and the Night Nurse with Niko at her side. There was a crackle of power around her that Edwin had only seen and felt a few times before, but when Crystal was pushed to the edge, she was a force to be reckoned with. Apparently, threatening punishment against them was enough to draw that out. "You touch them, and you'll have to go through me, and something tells me you're not supposed to mess with the living. It would throw things out of the natural order, after all."

"It's in your handbook," Niko said. "If you have something among the living that needs to be dealt with, you can request assistance, but you can't just push your way through us without any consequences."

"These boys are the ones who need consequences--" the Night Nurse began.

"Not to mention," Crystal said, loudly cutting her off. "You've read the case file that Edwin spent all of that time writing, and I know how meticulous he is about details in those case files. I know he didn't leave anything out. So I also know that you know we have some very powerful friends. Hob Gadling and Johanna Constantine would be enough of a pain in your ass as it is, but they are close to the Lord of Dreams, and he seems to like the boys well enough. You really want to piss them off on top of us? Because I'm ready for that fight if you are, but something tells me you aren't."

"It would be much easier if we agreed to work together instead of against each other. We just want to help people," Niko said. Charles glanced at Edwin with wide eyes, just as surprised as he was. It was still an adjustment for both of them to know that they had allies, friends, and people who cared about them, and it was not surprising that these people would want them to be safe. The Night Nurse looked at all of them and seemed to relax a little as she stood up a little straighter and smoothed out her clothing.

"Very well," she said. "If that is what is needed to get things back to the way they were, then that is what we will do."

"The way things were was not entirely working," Charles said. "You kept saying over and over again how we had to be 'useful,' or this arrangement wouldn't continue. That sounds like a threat and not something I want to go back to."

"The sword of Damocles hanging over our heads was not exactly conducive to excellent detective work," Edwin continued as she raised an eyebrow. "We want to help ghosts get justice and move on; you want children to move on, and we want the same thing, so it would be easier for all of us if you simply gave us case files and allowed us to work through them at our own pace."

"If anyone is invested in helping kids get justice and move on, it's these two for rather obvious reasons," Crystal added. The Night Nurse looked between the four of them and seemed to realize she wouldn't win if she kept fighting.

"Very well, no more quotas, but if there is a case that I believe needs to be moved to the top of the pile, I expect that request to be honored. Do you all agree?" she asked, and they all nodded. "I still cannot believe you have established contact with three of the Endless; this is absurd." Edwin didn't exactly disagree with that sentiment, but it was the last thing the Night Nurse said before she vanished in front of their eyes. Much like the last time they had a charged interaction with her, Edwin found himself pulled into an all-encompassing hug. This time, Niko was holding onto him as Crystal hugged Charles.

"You were both brilliant," Charles said softly, as Crystal and Niko shrugged as if they hadn't just done something incredible.

"Thank you," Edwin said for lack of a better way to put into words the gift the girls just gave them. He finally had nothing to run from, and Edwin hadn't ever felt safer.

+++

The roof of whatever building they were staying in was always one of their favorite places. They didn't feel the weather so it didn't matter what was going on, Edwin could enjoy the view with Charles without a care in the world. They were stretched out on the roof of their building and looking up at the sky. There was too much light pollution to see much; that was something about the modern era that Edwin was not fond of, but they had access to any roof, whether it was safe or not. It was dark enough tonight to see the moon and a few stars among the clouds.

Charles was all but wrapped around Edwin with his face tucked into his neck instead of looking up, which meant that Edwin could hold him while looking up.

"I feel like I haven't stopped running since I died," Edwin whispered. "I ran in hell, I ran out of hell, and then we were running from Death. It would get me if I stopped, and I'd lose everything." Charles squeezed him a little tighter and kissed Edwin's neck softly.

"I don't think you need to run anymore," Charles said as they moved just enough that they could look at each other. "I don't think we need to run anymore. I think we're safe, and I don't think anyone will try to separate us. We'll stay here and stay together until Death tells us that we can move on together, too." Edwin wasn't sure if moving on with someone else was possible. However, they were unique in a couple of different ways, and it seemed that the universe had already made several exceptions regarding their existence, so maybe it could make another.

And if it weren't, they had done the impossible before, and Edwin was confident that they would do it again with Charles at his side.