Victor cursed himself through clenched teeth. He'd homed in on Aiofe due to her Irish name and hostile attitude, what one would expect from a diversion. His mind wandered as he fought the pain—hadn't an opponent bested Sherlock Holmes once? At least he was in good company with his monumental failure. 

Ally was the reason Aiofe had snubbed him, feeding the girl lies and deceits. She'd led him on, encouraging the belief by showing him what he wanted to see. And he'd fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

"I regret the pain, Victor!" Ally wrung her hands. "But it has to be this way. It wouldn't be an issue if the incompetent Four didn't bungle things so badly. I would've only needed the dagger. You'd be in stasis, oblivious to everything."

The Four, he thought. Princess was right.

Jason shrieked and rushed to his side, dropping to his knees next to his fallen brother. "We need an ambulance!" The boy fumbled with a phone Victor knew wouldn't work.

"Jason!" Lovedae rushed toward the foyer and crashed into an invisible barrier. "Victor!" She screeched as she saw him, her hands beating against the blockade. She turned to the jittery Ally. "Why? What did my son do to you?"

A sobbing Rosetta joined her mother, small hands reaching toward her brothers.

Ally looked at Lovedae with bewilderment. "Your son? He's my son, fathered by my husband. Craig was the closes iteration of my Buach, the sign Carys and I needed to create a permanent body." She laid a hand on her chest. "Victor wasn't born from this form. That body expired in the space between realms due to childbirth. But ultimately, Victor's life belongs to me because we created him as the last vessel, the perfect Englishman, just like Buach."

Lovedae snarled. "You might have given birth to him, but you're not a mother!"

"You don't understand! He'll fulfill Buach's promise. When Craig died, the spell should have transferred him into Victor's body," cried the faux receptionist. "But something went wrong, and I had to divert Craig's essence into a dying relation, Lyle, to save him. It drained me! Victor became the caretaker of the original heir until I built up enough energy to try again. I waited three years, creating a massive Disturbance for the transfer. Lyle would transport into the younger boy if it failed again until we could fix Victor."

"I ain't your backup plan!" shouted Jason.

"I know now that Carys plotted against me. It damaged the tree, knowing Victor would try to save it. It had him tapping into my magic using the tree as a transfiguration rod. Victor stole chunks of my power, weakening me again! That's when I knew I'd also need the dirk to complete the final transference!"

Ally turned to Victor, jabbing a finger at him. "It wasn't errors with the process. It was betrayal! I gave you life—how could you and Carys do this to me?" Bitter tears pooled in her eyes. "I've suffered for centuries, betrayed by those I trusted just to keep my beloved alive!"

Now Victor understood the premise of the two voices. Carys and Roisin, each with a different mission. "A... misguided quest," he muttered, repeating Little Vic's words.

Jason tossed aside his useless phone, wrapping his arms around Victor. "Only monsters murder their own!"

"But they were mine, created for that purpose." She gazed at the preteen with interest. "You've the look of the Irish about you, boy. Buach would've appreciated that if the transfer into Victor failed. But this time, it won't."

"Leave Jason... be," muttered Victor.

"I'm sorry, Victor, but you are years of planning that finally came to fruition." Ally kneeled next to the injured teen, the poppy red lips trembling. "Carys, the tutelary deity, was my teacher. It taught me how to live on through the essences of others when those asinine elders took our immortality. A deity has powers beyond anything I could muster. I gave you to her to modify and prepare you for becoming Buach's permanent vessel. I don't know what spell you cast to make it betray me, but no more. You will fulfill your destiny."

"Wasn't... a spell," muttered Victor through clenched teeth. "Was... love."

He remembered how the white-cloaked figure had cared for him in the place between the realms, where thoughts controlled time and reality. As a growing child, he'd swarmed Carys with affection. The tutelary deity had grown attached to him, which must have contributed to its change of heart. It wanted him to live but not as a vessel for the soul-stealing Buach.

Carys was responsible for him, a human, obtaining the magic.

"Let them go, Ally! Please!" cried Rosetta. "Vic is dying!"

She gazed at the crying child with remorse. "I'm so sorry, sweetie. I truly am."

Lovedae grabbed a chair, beating it against a barrier that did not yield as a car pulled into the driveway.

"Tell my husband Roisin waits for him." Leaning down, she touched both boys, and all three vanished.

The crescent moon shone like a boomerang in the clearing sky. Victor found himself next to the professor's maple tree with Jason. Looking down, he studied the weapon buried in his abdomen. No blood flowed from the area. But the dirk was made by the One Magi elders and scrambled his magic, the one thing he needed to get them out of this mess.

Jason whimpered. Victor managed to smile at the frightened boy. "It'll be... okay." He turned to watch their captor, a woman he no longer saw as Ally but as the master deceiver—Roisin.

She marched to the center of the clearing. "Carys! I know you're here! Show yourself, traitor!"

Carys didn't appear. But Kristy did.

The genie popped out of nowhere, her staff glowing a dazzling blue in the darkness. She attacked Roisin with fierceness, her blows resulting in screams and curses. Their captor screeched as she gave ground. Hope rose in Victor until the enraged woman began shielding herself against the genie's powerful strikes.

Then began delivering some of her own.

Kristy blocked as much as she could, but the magical attack of the One Magi was too much. Her guard didn't recover as quickly, and she sustained hit after hit. The staff fell from her bruised hands, and the battered genie toppled to the ground—and disappeared.

"How dare you!" An enraged Roisin turned to Victor, the poppy red lips snarling. "You bring that piece of trash back here now!"

Victor had mustered enough energy to order Kristy into the safest place he knew, her Focus. "You've enough... blood on your... hands," he muttered.

Inside his head, he could hear Kristy weeping. "Master, I tried to catch her off guard. I failed."

Victor sent words he hoped would soothe. "You tried, love. Thank you. Now, rest."

"Murdering psycho cow!" yelled Jason.

"Stop saying it's murder!" Roisin stamped her foot. What I've done, I did for love. Love never dies. Buach was all I had left. I—" Suddenly, she turned, trembling in anticipation.

There were footsteps on the path leading into the clearing. Dr. Mason had arrived. Victor watched as his father stalked into the clearing, his eyes taking in everything before turning to Roisin.

"Buach." Roisin's voice was a whisper. Her hand reached out to him.

But the doctor stepped back.

"Roisin, end this nightmare, please. Immortality for humans is a curse, not a blessing. You mock me with this parody of life." Victor saw the doctor's eyes slide to the tribute flowers under the tree, where the ashes of his last host, Professor Craig, resided. "This is not how God made man. We live then die. Free my sons, free me."

Roisin frowned. "Victor is not a real son! Carys and I created him for us. Don't you see? It's a tool, an end to a means. This is your permanent receptacle, pure and righteous."

"I've endured my children's deaths due to my existence. Our son doesn't deserve to die like the rest! Free me from this hell on earth if you truly ever loved me!" The look on Dr. Mason's face was torturous. "You've blackened my soul by twisting a promise!

The woman's eyes went from tenderness to righteous indignation. "Buach, we're at the end! After tonight it'll be over. See?" She held out her hand, and a dagger appeared, one that Victor recognized. She pointed to the injured teen. "That's your new body, but unlike me, it's immortal. Carys taught me long ago how to redirect my essence into a new host, which in a sense, makes me immortal again. We'll return to England. We were happiest there. We'll start anew—"

"I don't want to start anew."

"Buach, please—"

"I'm not Buach anymore, thanks to you! I'm Lyle!" The doctor's face was flushed with emotion. "I'm every person I've ever taken over. Parts of them remain with me, haunting me. Victor will haunt me! You've created me in your image! Just like you, I'm a bleeding monster!"

"Victor needed to give that body substance for you!" she shouted, then paused. Instead of fury, Roisin grew calm. "I see the problem. You need to remember your original self. You need to remember why this all started, my love." Her hand reached for him.

Victor sensed her power building, but there was nothing he could do but warn the doctor. "Papa!"

Before Dr. Mason could evade her, Roisin stood before him, her glowing hand on his heart. Victor watched in horror as the doctor began to convulse. Only Victor saw how she drilled into layers of remembrances, the leftovers from helpless victims forced to terminate their existence—Professor Craig, David, Alan, Garrett, Conor, Liam, Finn, Luke, Daniel, Sean, Cillian, Patrick, Oisín, Noah—until she touched the core, the beginning.

Buach.

Roisin stepped back as the man fell to his knees, his head buried in shaky hands. Several tense moments passed before he lowered his hands, his eyes turning to the woman who stood watching him with anticipation.

"Buach?" she whispered. "Is it you?"

Slowly he lifted his head, then rose to his feet. He gazed at Roisin with the beginnings of a smile. Then his arms opened wide. "Roisin, me darlin'." The Irish inflections were thick in his voice. "How I've missed you."

A sobbing Roisin threw herself into his arms. "Oh, Buach! It is you!"

Victor felt hope plummet.

"It's okay, m'dear. God in heaven knows how hard ye worked to keep us together." His hands went to her shoulders. "Ye promising me after tonight, it's over? Murdering me kin tisn't a good life. But if ye swear, I'll help ye end it." His hands cupped her cheeks, and he kissed her.

Tears rolled down Roisin's flushed cheeks. "Tonight, it ends. I swear."

"What do I do?" asked Dr. Mason.

"My love, insert the dagger to the hilt in his chest. That will activate the power that siphons his magical essence. At the same time, I'll begin with the incantation Carys and I developed. Instead of drawing out, it'll draw your essence into the vessel through the dagger. The destruction of Victor's essence will assist in powering the transfer."

"And it's over." Buach pulled her close as she nodded and wept. Several moments later, Roisin pulled away, and he dried her tears with gentle fingers. "Come. Let's be done with it."

The two approached the brothers near the tree. Victor noted the look of ecstasy on Roisin's face, but Buach's remained solemn.

"Dad?" said Jason, his voice filled with fear.

"I'm still yer father, Jason. But who I was when all of this madness started is at the forefront." He turned sad eyes to Victor. "I'm sorry for yer pain, son, and what more I'll cause ye." Buach looked to Roisin. "I'll take that weapon, my lovely."

Roisin happily passed it to him.

Jason began sobbing, begging his father not to do this as Victor bowed his head. He could hear Kristy's screams inside his head to let her fight till the end. There was no way he'd allow her out. His last duty as caretaker would be to send his brother away with the girl he loved.

At least the magi would leave his family in peace now.

Dry-eyed, he turned to Jason. "Help me... up, mate."

After his brother propped him against the professor's tree, Victor held out his hand, and a tiny pitcher appeared in his palm. "You know... what this... is?" When Jason nodded, he placed it in his hand. "You're the man of the house now. I love you, Jason."

Victor smoothed back the boy's red hair and kissed his forehead before shoving him toward the path home. "Go home, Jason. Please."

Crying, the tween took off running. Jason would arrive home to rally Lovedae and Rosetta, but Victor was sure Roisin's magic hadn't permitted them to leave as a precaution. By the time he returned, it would be too late.

The embedded dirk still scattered his magic and any chance of escape. It seemed Carys had deserted him too, as nothing changed in the quiet of the clearing as he faced his father and, disturbingly, his mother. Not the reunion Victor expected.

"The best way for a man to die is on his feet, facing death with dignity." Buach stepped closer, his arm tightening around Roisin. She closed her eyes, readying herself for the spell. Victor could feel her power building.

Buach raised the dagger. "Don't worry. I'll make it quick, boy."

Victor met Buach's eyes as he prepared himself for the blow. "I love... you, Papa."

"As I love you." And Buach plunged the dagger deep into the chest—of Roisin.

Her screams echoed through the clearing as the dagger activated. It halted her ability to move as it began draining her magic and life force—straight into Buach, a human who could not handle the potent energies. His eyes grew wide as his body trembled in agony, but his hand on the dagger remained steady as it continued to drain the woman he'd once loved.

"From Buach to Lyle... No more innocent lives lost... no more tormenting! With God... as my witness, we will... be free!" The Irish inflections were gone from his voice. Victor realized the ruse had been for Roisin. Dr. Mason shrieked as his body began to smoke.

Roisin was dying. The disk she'd used on Victor to scramble his magic fell to the ground as her life ebbed away. He slapped his hand over the now bleeding wound as his power awoke. But he ignored it, his eyes locked on the dying Dr. Mason. The man had let the woman see what she wanted, accent and all. Roisin was convinced she had brought the essence of her first husband to the forefront, knowing he'd choose her.

She had, but even Buach hadn't wanted eternal life.

Roisin would die, never understanding that the will to live dies when a man lives countless lives in such a heinous manner. Dr. Mason had played the game well and would die for it. He'd even apologized for the hurt he'd caused. Victor had misunderstood. His father meant the pain of leaving them—again.

Victor's caretaking duties evaporated as Roisin dying freed him from the charge. But he didn't see the outcome as fair to his mother or the Duo. They needed their father... more than they needed him. Lovedae and the doctor could be happy again, start fresh. After discovering the doctor's identity, his mother hadn't rejected Lyle because she still loved him.

And didn't Dr. Mason say he wished—

Victor didn't pause to consider his line of thinking. He acted upon it. Stumbling forward, he threw an elbow, hitting his father in the face. The weakened man toppled over, crashing to the ground. When his hand released the dagger, Victor's bloodstained fingers covered it. Roisin's magic now poured into him, raw and feral, tearing through his system like fire, too much for the injured magus to manage. He screamed in agony as he and Roisin hit the ground, but he kept hold of the weapon. He burned from inside out, unable to save himself from the power, his mind a blur from the ongoing torture.

He heard a whispery voice as consciousness waned.

I am here.

Victor clung to the words as he slipped into blessed unconsciousness.

Only a couple of chapters left! If you enjoyed this chapter, please vote or leave a comment!