Hazel stared at her computer screen, tapping her fingers against the desk as she replayed the video over and over. Fletcher gave up far sooner than she expected. She’d planned on him lasting a full month in lock up—maybe even two—before he wore down enough to concede to her wishes.

  But whatever happened that night changed things.

  She’d been alerted the morning after and given the security footage herself to watch. One minute he was sleeping peacefully and then the next he sat up screaming as if the world itself was ending. After that was the same image of him curled up in the corner, not moving for nearly thirty hours straight. They’d sent guards in to check on him and confirm it wasn’t a medical issue when he told them he was done.

  “It just doesn’t make sense,” Hazel said to herself. She’d seen that kind of reaction in people before… when she was in the conversion facility all those years ago.

  It wasn’t a memory she liked to think of—no one who survived those horror shops wanted to remember their time there—but she found occasionally those memories could be of use.

  Such as now.

  It wasn’t enough in the conversion facilities that their captors physically tortured them with radiation, drawing them closer to death while simultaneously beating and starving them, but if any of the guards had [Skills] that could be used for psychological torture, they were authorized to use it however they wanted.

  Fletcher’s sudden waking, the clear shock he was in for the days following, and the fear of sleeping were all tell-tell signs of having been subjected to the nightmarish [Project Fear], an ability that allowed the user to put their victim through hyper-realistic visions of their greatest fear.

  Hazel didn’t know for sure what Fletcher’s greatest fear was, but it obviously had something to do with his father given the way the boy clung to Sebastian ever since his release and the conversation they had when she first saw him after the incident.

  It didn’t bother her that Fletcher was so attached to Sebastian. What bothered her was that there was an active [Skill]-shield in use in the entire prison block, which should have made it impossible for anyone to have used [Project Fear] onto him. Even more worrisome was wondering who could have done it to Fletcher and why.

  The doorbell rang.

  “Enter,” Hazel said, her eyes still glued to the computer screen as she ran through other bits of footage from the cellblock where Fletcher had been locked up. If there was a spy or traitor among her ranks, she would do everything in her power to dig them out, ideally in the most painful ways possible.

  The door opened, and in walked her former partner, Sebastian. She made a mental note to start the divorce proceedings next time she had an open time block, which was looking to be a lot further down the line than she would like.

  “What do you need, Colonel?” she asked.

  “I’m not here on business, Hazel. This is about Fletcher,” Sebastian said.

  She was mildly annoyed that he skipped the formalities, but she chose not to start that argument with him. This time.

  “I told you to take care of him. It seems to me that you’re very good at it,” she said with a note of sarcasm.

  “Clearly you don’t have too much faith in me given you had him sent to a psychiatrist.” Sebastian crossed the room and sat in the chair across from her.

  “It’s standard for anyone coming out of solitary to get a mental health check up.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, with a regular counselor. You sent him to a full trauma therapist.”

  “Are you going to argue he didn’t need it? You’ve been around him the past two days, Seb.” Hazel pulled herself away from the computer screen to give her full attention to her legal husband.

  “I know it’s been quite a few years, but I’d like to remind you that we’re co-parents, Hazel. We’re supposed to be doing this together.” Sebastian stared at her with that semi-accusing glare he’d managed to perfect early on in their partnership.

  It wasn’t that it forced her to tell her secrets, but given that he obviously knew something more was going on, she decided that it would be better to get his help than push him out and have him poking around in things she’d rather he didn’t.

  “Something happened to him in that cell.”

  “Besides being locked up in solitary confinement?” Sebastian’s lips twitched into a grin.

  “I did what I had to do to get him to listen to reason.” Hazel moved the computer monitor so both she and Sebastian could clearly see it. “But I mean something else. Something more.”

  She moved back through the footage of Fletcher’s cell until she got to the original trigger point. Hitting play, they both watched their son go from what seemed an ordinary sleep to full-blown hysteria in the matter of seconds. Once the image of Fletcher was in the corner, she sped up the footage.

  “He stayed like that for over a day, not moving for anything. Not food, not water,” she said as the video played in fast motion.

  Once it got to the point that the guards came in, she paused it and glanced back at Sebastian, waiting for his response.

  His jaw moved in what was obvious teeth grinding, one of those bad habits she never could convince him to quit.

  “Well?”

  “That looks like…”

  “[Project Fear],” Hazel finished for him.

  Sebastian bit his lip. “I was going to say [Hysteria].”

  “[Hysteria] would have driven him to harm himself. This only disturbed his mind.” Hazel had always been better versed in [Skills] than Sebastian, especially since her own Hexing.

  “So who did it?”

  “That’s where things get… odd.” Hazel chose her words carefully, not wanting to admit her truest worries yet. She explained the full circumstances, ranging from lack of people in the area when the incident occurred to the [Skill]-shield which should have protected him from that kind of influence. The circumstances were odd enough that she couldn’t be positive that it was genuinely a [Skill] which did this to Fletcher, which was why she was hesitant to share too much about it. But she trusted Sebastian, and he deserved to know all her suspicions.

  “Are you saying a ghost did this? One with the power to override our biggest advantage over the Unhumans?” Sebastian cocked an eyebrow.

  “Ghosts aren’t real, Sebastian. Be serious.”

  “Right. Ghosts aren’t, but [Fairies], [Dwarves], and angels are.”

  Hazel rolled her eyes. “[Demanlics]. Not angels.”

  “The same thing.”

  “Except the horns and red eyes. That’s where the demon part comes in.” She smiled, forgetting the gravity of the situation for a few seconds to enjoy joking around with one of her closest friends.

  “My son’s no demon,” Sebastian said quietly.

  Hazel said nothing, looking away. She was still furious with him for having hidden something like that. He claimed that he thought it would be safer for Fletcher to stay in the colonies rather than in the Mixed where “people” might try to use their son’s unique heritage for their own gains.

  She knew that he really meant her. It stung that her partner thought so little of her, even if somewhere inside she worried that she might have done just that if she’d learned the truth about Fletcher sooner.

  But this version of Hazel Anders had grown beyond that kind of scheming and abuse of her own children. With the problems they currently dealt with inside the Mixed leadership, the worst thing she could do right now was add in the catalyst of a Mixhuman-[Demanlic], even with all that potential she knew Fletcher had buried in there.

  And maybe, just maybe, she did want to protect her son and fulfill her mothering duty in some small part.

  “There’s a chance it was just a nightmare.” Sebastian’s deep voice brought her back to the office.

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  “You believe something as silly as a nightmare did this to him?” Hazel was genuinely surprised Sebastian made such a petty suggestion. She might have had that thought herself a time or two, but her partner had been so adamant in telling her that Fletcher was stronger than she gave him credit for.

  “Optimistic thinking, I guess.” His face fell, and silence resumed for a moment.

  It was Sebastian who broke it. “Is he going to be okay, Hazel?”

  “As you’ve so often pointed out, dear co-parent, you know him better than I do. If anyone knows the answer to that question, it’s you,” Hazel said. “But don’t tell him about the [Project Fear] mystery, Sebastian. The last thing he needs right now is an additional worry that someone out there is trying to drive him insane with a [Skill].”

  “I agree with you there,” Sebastian replied. “But he’s in rough shape, Hazel. Maybe we should—”

  “He’ll be fine. He’s half Vincent,” Hazel reminded her friend. “It’ll take a little time, but I have full confidence he’ll get through this. It’s good for him to deal with uncomfortable situations occasionally.” Unlike Sebastian, Hazel didn’t believe shielding Fletcher from the trials of the world was going to do him any good. She disliked that he had to suffer—she was still his mother—but she recognized that the experience would help him grow stronger. That was the part she chose to focus on.

  “It might speed up the process if you took it easy on him for a few days… or weeks.”

  “I think I’ve been rather generous given he called me a terrorist half a dozen times,” Hazel said. “Besides, I even pulled a few strings to get him sanctioned as a sworn citizen rather than birth citizen so he could have a full year before going to training.”

  “Don’t act like you suddenly found it within yourself to be generous. That was your plan from the start. You even told me that much,” he reminded her.

  “But he doesn’t have to know that.” She smiled.

  “Yeah. It might be better if he didn’t. That way he can think he won something in this battle.”

  “Another little lie that’s good for morale.”

  Sebastian chuckled. “Alright. I’m going to go check on him. If you see Nora, you might try to convince her to pop in and say hi. That would be good for both of them.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Hazel promised.

  He stood up, saluted, and walked out. She didn’t comment on the sarcasm of the salute, choosing to appreciate that he was at the very least trying to remember the chain of command. She understood that it was difficult for him given their shared history and children.

  Hazel sighed as she thought the word children. Unlike so many people she knew growing up, being a parent had never been something she was interested in, especially once she began her military career. It’d only been duty that forced her through the rigors of pregnancy and childbirth two times over.

  Two times too many in her opinion. She couldn’t imagine willingly suffering through those things four or five times, the way so many women did now in hopes of “repopulating” the world after the devastation caused by the Merger and subsequent wars.

  But she did the job requested of her, and she did like the benefits of having kids. Nora had been a rather easy child to raise, all things considered, and she turned out to be quite the soldier, just as Hazel wanted.

  It was Fletcher that she really struggled to deal with. When she left him behind in the refugee camp twenty-four years ago, she’d firmly believed that Sebastian’s assignment wouldn’t last longer than a decade, and the way she saw it, that would give her the chance to parent Fletcher during the easiest point in his life, when he was old enough to understand things and interact with her on a more adult level. She didn’t like babies or toddlers, which was why she’d taken Nora and left Fletcher to his father. The assumption was that within five to ten years, they’d all be back together again anyway.

  There had been no way of knowing that politics would push Sebastian’s mission into an indefinite one, cutting her off from her friend and son. Her only consolation was that they agreed to put Fletcher’s name on the Protected List, ensuring that if he was ever in danger and a Mixed soldier could help, they were obligated to.

  It’d been a shock when she learned the list had actually worked in bringing Fletcher back to her, only for her to discover her son was, as Sebastian so eloquently put it, a gentle soul.

  More like a giant wimp, but Sebastian’s version sounded less like a failure of parenting so she chose to go with that.

  Hazel dealt with rebellious soldiers and teenagers in her life—on both counts, due largely to Nora—so she knew what to do about that. But Fletcher’s form of rebellion was different. It wasn’t a “I won’t do what you say because I don’t want to,” rather a “I don’t believe in this cause, and my moral principles keep me from following your orders.” The second one was a lot harder to deal with since it meant she had to completely reshape his thinking compared to simply knocking the idiocy out of his head.

  She definitely planned to do both to Fletcher as the deities knew he could use it in large amounts, but it was a far more delicate task to reshape the thinking of someone in their mid-twenties compared to a child or teenager. Luckily she had Sebastian to help her, and regardless of how often he claimed that he was against trying to force Fletcher to be something he wasn’t, the man still did what she asked when it came to her plans.

  The doorbell sounds, and she called for them to enter. A glance at the clock confirmed that this was a planned appointment—unlike Sebastian’s little visit.

  “Sergeant Jordan, you’re right on time. Have a seat,” Hazel said as Jeric walked in.

  Jeric Jordan was everything she wished she had in a son… confident, capable, unsentimental, and obedient. Then again, given everything he’d gone through and her role in his life, he might as well be her son.

  “General.” He saluted and waited for her to dismiss it before sitting down. “What can I do for you?”

  Before she could answer, there was another ringing of the doorbell and in came Nora before Hazel could even respond.

  “Captain Anders?” Hazel used a firm tone, reminding her daughter that this wasn’t the time to act casual.

  “General,” Nora said, saluting her and then stood next to the chair with Jeric. “I guess I was too late to get a seat.”

  “You should try being on time,” Jeric said.

  “Enough.” Hazel cut off their teasing before it could escalate. They were here for a purpose after all. “Since you’re both going on the rescue mission out to the W’al’iw conversion facility next week, I’d like to make a personal request.”

  Nora’s eyebrows shot up while Jeric remained expressionless. If it weren’t for his substantial level of Hexing, he would be a spy somewhere given how talented he was at the game.

  “I want you to take Fletcher with you,” Hazel continued.

  Nora laughed. “What? Are we dropping him off there? Letting the Unhumans worry about the [Demanlic] issue?”

  “Watch your mouth,” Hazel warned her daughter. She was serious about keeping Fletcher’s true species a secret, and she wasn’t going to let Nora’s irritation with him ruin it.

  “It’s a bad idea, General.” Jeric shook his head.

  “Bad idea? Try horrible idea. Or maybe worst idea ever.” Nora laughed again. “Unless you want to get everyone involved killed. Then it’s a brilliant plan.”

  “Why?” Jeric always was the one who was good at asking the important questions, another quality Hazel liked about him.

  “He claims his biggest barrier to willingly serving in the military is lack of devotion to the cause. I believe that comes from lack of exposure to the very real problems we face and fight against. A little dose of reality may very well fix all his current problems,” she explained.

  “Okay.” Jeric stood up. “Whatever you want, General, I’ll do. Though I can’t promise he’ll come back unharmed. This is a dangerous mission.”

  “I can’t promise he’ll come back at all,” Nora said. “This is Fletcher we’re talking about. The guy still cries anytime he remembers killing someone who actively tried to kill him. Seeing a conversion facility is probably going to fry his mind beyond use.” She smirked. “But maybe that’s for the best too. You can count on me, General.”

  “You leave in a week. I’d like the both of you, and Lieutenant Baltic if she’s available, to work with him to get him as prepared as you can,” Hazel said.

  They both nodded and agreed.

  “Sergeant, you’re dismissed.” Hazel motioned his salute off and sent Jeric on his way while making a mental note to plan a dinner with just her and Jeric so she could hear all his insights into the Fletcher situation. It’d been too long since they had casual time together, but ever since he and Addy became official, all of his spare time had gone to her instead. Not that Hazel was upset about that. Jeric deserved something positive in his life after everything he’d been through.

  “Something else for me, General?” Nora asked with a tight smile.

  “Your father wants you to make a bigger effort with your brother.”

  “Right. Because even though he’s the one who showed up here after all these years and made a mess of things, I’m the one who has to fix it for him. That makes sense. If he wants to be friends with me, he can be the one to reach out. Let him do something for himself for once.”

  “Nora.” Hazel looked at her and sighed. “This is a difficult transition for him, and it would make things easier for everyone if you would just suck it up and be nice to him occasionally. I’m not asking you to be his best friend. Just a few pleasant conversations to make him feel a little less like an outsider.”

  “Why do I care if he feels like an outsider?” Nora asked.

  Hazel wished her daughter was better at governing her emotions, especially when they did such a good job of clouding her thinking.

  “The sooner he accepts our cause as his own, the sooner he goes into the service, and the sooner you stop having to interact with him or even hear about him,” Hazel said.

  Nora thought about it for a second and then nodded. “That’s a good point. Alright, fine, I’ll try. A little bit. Don’t expect miracles.”

  “Thank you. Now get out of here. I have work to do.” Hazel nodded to the door.

  “Are we still on for dinner tonight?”

  “Yes. And I promise, no Fletcher or your father. A proper family dinner.”

  Nora smiled. “Good. Just like old times. I’ll see you then.” She walked out and left Hazel alone in her office.

  All her familial duties finally taken care of, Hazel returned to her most important work, taking in hand a report from one of their Bren’it’p spies. It was about the latest ploy from the Unhumans to do something dramatic. Unfortunately, she had no idea what the ploy was or what they were trying to accomplish with it. All she knew was a name, and that provided very little information.

  The Diplomacy Initiative.

  All she knew for sure was that it had absolutely nothing to do with diplomacy, and that worried her more than anything.