Everything was in motion before Alex realized what was happening. It happened so fast, yet it also felt as if time had nearly stopped, and they were all moving in slow motion.

What no one wanted to consider was the chance that they were already too late.

Their heartfelt goodbyes were said swiftly to Saratanya. She had given Treyan something when they parted from their embrace, but Alex was too flustered to pay much attention. Alex welcomed her to their apartment should she ever need an escape from New York, and if things didn't work out as they had hoped, Saratanya offered sanctuary to them as well.

Treyan held onto Bria, literally, as they walked closely down the street, while Sarayna was swaddled against Alex in a sling. He was muttering to Bria harshly in their language, and she was responding just as quietly, but Alex was so distracted that she couldn't exert the effort and energy it would take to translate it.

Crystal's apartment wasn't far, but it felt as though the trek through the city took forever. It began snowing, and a light dusting was underfoot. It would have been beautiful for the Christmas holiday if there weren't more important, time sensitive items that required all their immediate attention. That was even if they did end up going through Crystal's apartment. It was a long shot, but it was the most logical option, and the only one they had to go with.

That Lexan was there, and so close to them that entire time, and yet had never revealed himself made Alex the numbest. She felt as though she failed him as a mother, despite the fact he was taken away from her before she could truly prove herself to him. She held Sarayna close to her heart while they traveled down the darkening Boston sidewalk. The upside to the holidays was that there weren't many people out and about to raise questions as to what the three—four—of them were doing while rushing in such a mad hurry.

Crystal's apartment was an old brownstone near the Public Gardens, a three-story building that looked much older on the outside. She lived on the top floor, and they stopped to arch their necks up to see if anything could be viewed from one of the many windows.

Sure enough, there was a light blue hue emanating from the front window of the apartment—the light from a Key that remained open.

The urgency that exuded through them was almost too much to bear. Alex could hardly get her fingers to work right to get the correct key into the door's lock. So much so that Treyan needed to take the keys from her hand and open the door himself because Alex was too nervous to get the job done. Once the door was open, Treyan ushered the two women quickly inside and up the stairs to the third- floor apartment. All was quiet, which was good for them, but bad for Crystal.

The hallway outside the apartment was quiet and dark, except for the blue light that pulsated beneath the door. Treyan didn't wait for the keys this time and rammed his shoulder against the door as hard as he could. It didn't budge at first, and she knew he had most likely dislocated his shoulder upon impact, but that didn't stop him from trying a second time, or a third, before the door finally gave in and burst open. Holding his injured arm against his body, they rushed into the apartment to see what waited for them.

The apartment door opened to the main living room. The centrally located fireplace housed the portal that would lead them all back to the Empire. The blue heatless flames swirled in a roaring darkness of eternity as Crystal lay unconscious on the floor in front of them.

Alex would have run for her friend if it wasn't for the shadowed form that emerged from the chair nearby, now blocking their way.

"I was wondering when you'd be joining us."

Nile—no, Lexan—stood there with a familiar book in his arms.

"Where did you get that?" Bria demanded as she stepped in front of Alex. If the Empress didn't know any better, she would have described Bria as protective.

Lexan glanced down at the book in his hands. "What, this old thing? You really should take better care of your belongings, Mistress, or they may go...missing."

Bria quickly rummaged through the satchel at her hip, and she realized The Complete Manual on Key Construction was missing from her possession. "Rhaid," Alex heard her curse under her breath.

"What exactly is it you think you are doing?" Treyan demanded from Alex's other side.

"Oh, Crown Prince Treyan...you as well as anyone should know what an Empress' Key looks like." He smirked and the gleam in his eyes was undeniable in the blue flames.

"Merely the Crown Prince to you, am I?" Treyan hissed, but Alex placed a hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him.

"Lexan." Alex walked between her two would-be protectors. "You don't have to do this." She motioned towards the still form of her best friend on the floor as her other arm wrapped protectively around the sleeping child clinging to her chest. Alex hoped it would be dark enough for Lexan not to notice his sister among everything else going on. She was uncertain what lengths he would go through.

Lexan's features softened in the light as he laid eyes on his mother. Recognition gleamed as she took in his features. He looked so much like his father—whichever one he wanted to compare himself to—that his lineage was undeniable.

"Mother," he said as he took a step forward to greet her, but he got no further as Treyan pulled Alex behind him. Their son gave him an evil glance, but he returned his attention to Alex. "I had hoped you'd be able to join us. Father would be so pleased to be reunited after all these years."

"If we go back, we all will go, but Crystal has to stay here. She doesn't belong in the Empire, Lexan. She has her own life to live here, in this realm."

"Just as you did before you were taken?" he said with a smirk.

"That was different, and you should know that."

"I know better, that is for certain. My father has kept me well informed as to what the Empire has instilled in the mind of innocents all these years."

"Reylor is a fool," Treyan chimed in.

Lexan turned to him, fury in his eyes. "Speak about him as such again and we'll see who the fool is."

"Enough of this," Alex broke in. The overload of testosterone was too much to handle. "Lexan, let us go back—we can make this right, but Crystal must stay here. She doesn't belong there. There is no Prophecy for her in the Empire."

"But that is where you're wrong, Mother. For you see, Father has the Annals, and they have been restored to their former glory. There is a Prophecy for me—for us—as it rightfully should have been from the beginning. And our time, fortunately, is now." He motioned to Crystal where she lay on the floor.

"This is madness!" Treyan exclaimed as he began to rush Lexan. He was too quick for Alex to stop him, and she doubted she would have been able to if she tried. Lexan, however, was ready for him, and reflexively pummeled a blood-red magical blast of power into Treyan's bad shoulder so quickly it pushed him back off his feet. Alex immediately rushed to her husband's side, carefully protecting Sarayna at her chest. He was conscious, thankfully, but clearly in pain. His arm was at an unnatural angle, and he had hit his head against a nearby table as he fell, creating a bleeding gash across his forehead.

While Alex tended to Treyan, Lexan remained unguarded. He turned to gather up Crystal's limp form and got so far as to flinging her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry before Bria seemed to regain her wits and charged. Again, he seemed ready for the attack, and scooped Bria up with his free arm as if she was no more than a rag doll. Her shriek of surprise brought Alex and Treyan's attention back towards the fireplace, and they soon realized the situation was far more dire than initially thought.

Lexan stopped before the flaming Key portal, shadowed by the bright blue flames yearning to engulf him. On one shoulder he carried the unconscious body of Alex's best friend Crystal, and in the other arm he held tight to the squirming body of Alex's former Mistress. The look of sick satisfaction on his face made Alex's stomach turn and her heart drop. She wanted nothing more than to run to them, embrace them all, keep them there with her or go with them, but Treyan needed to move.

"Get up," she urged Treyan through gritted teeth, pulling on his good arm with all her might. Treyan was much heavier than he looked—solid muscle tended to do that—and her efforts were in vain as his body shifted onto his bad shoulder, and he moaned in pain.

"Tsk tsk," Lexan commented as he watched them. "You truly did pick poorly, Mother. This weakling is nothing compared to the glory that Father could give you." He bowed towards the portal. "There is always a second chance, of course."

"Lexan!" Treyan hoisted himself on the elbow of his good arm, clearly exerting the remaining energy he had. He winced slightly but continued. "Will you listen to yourself? You're doing nothing but spurting ideologies that have been spoon-fed to you. Open your eyes—do you truly think your mother and I would have left you behind if it was as simple as you make it sound?"

Lexan scoffed. "You've no right to talk! You took her from me for your own selfish reasons, instead of leaving her behind with my father where she belonged!

"Your father? Have you no idea?"

Alex gave him a look that blatantly told him now was not the time. She stood and began to approach her son, thinking as fast as she could for some way to reason with him, but she wasn't fast enough.

Crystal was beginning to wake up on Lexan's shoulder, and it was evident he was starting to panic. Had he planned on her being asleep for her first Key transport? By the speed he moved towards the Key's portal, it appeared so. Alex and Treyan both called out to him, but it was too late—he was through with Crystal and Bria in tow without another look behind him.

Instinctively, Alex gave chase, but stopped herself before entering the portal. She stood there, and her hesitation was reason enough—Sarayna began to stir, and for a moment Alex wondered if she could sense the magic before her from her home world.

Alex stared at the Key, and soon the pros and cons of re-entry began running through her mind. They were just beginning to make a life for themselves here, in a world where magic and evil brothers couldn't harm any of them. She thought of said evil brothers and realized that Sarayna's own brother—her own son!—was through that portal. So close, yet so far...

And Sarayna. What life would they be bringing her into, where her own brother was the protege of the uncle who attacked her mother?

He was about to get further. The flames of the Key were growing unstable, and the uncontrolled magic was beginning to lash out. One arm of the conflagration slashed Alex in the leg, leaving a deep welt in her thigh. She let out a cry as she fell forward to avoid any additional damage, shielding Sarayna from any additional danger that may unleash itself.

She could only stare—their portal home was so close, and yet it all seemed so far, and it would only get further away, and all she could do was watch as hope blew away.

Treyan however, had a different idea.

Alex hadn't noticed him move, but he was soon next to her, helping with Sarayna. He brought his daughter to his chest with his good arm, and though unstable, brought his legs underneath him so that he could crouch in a squat next to Alex.

"Do you trust me?" he asked over the blazing inferno.

"Of course."

"Good." He gave her a kiss, gave Sarayna a kiss on her forehead, and stood quickly.

Treyan brought their baby through the portal before Alex could even blink.

Ignoring the searing pain in her leg, she sprung up and lunged after Treyan, fists flying, screaming at him in any and every language that came to mind. She didn't care who he was—she could only focus on what he had done.

As it had happened before, the world unceremoniously turned itself to blackness as she helplessly fell through the Key.

No matter how many times she did it, Alex was still not used to Key travel.

Her head hurt as much as it did when Treyan brought her through for the very first time, and she hadn't even spent the previous drinking this time.

She felt warm, and the light against her closed eyelids was bright. Wherever they were, it must have been daytime, and there was a lot of sunlight.

She felt her body being moved and soon her head was supported on something. Her hair was being brushed from her brow and she heard whispered terms of endearment as though to coax her out of her post-Key intoxication.

It worked, and she slowly opened her eyes to see a pair of beautiful blue ones looking into hers. Treyan smiled as she came to, and he continued to gently brush a hand over her hair.

"There you are, nirr ruya."

"Where are we?" Alex whispered in a hoarse voice. She felt as though she hadn't had a sip of water in a week.

"We are home," he smiled down at her. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," she replied softly as she tried to bring her legs underneath her to sit up.

The pain in her leg brought all movement to a screeching halt, and she soon remembered the source of the wound, and the circumstances that occurred thereafter.

Rage blazed in her eyes as her head shot up. How could Treyan have so thoughtlessly brought their infant daughter through such an unstable portal into a world where anyone who got their hands on her would use it to their advantage?

She had to look away from him as the tears came to her eyes. "How could you..."

She could barely get the words out.

"Empress?"

Alex's head shot up a second time.

Bria?

She ignored all pain and discomfort to turn around, sitting with Treyan at her back to see Bria sitting on the floor at the other side of the room they were in.

But she wasn't alone.

Next to her, wrapped only in a heavy cloak, was a young woman, no older than twenty by the looks of her, with long, brown hair, and bright blue eyes.

Treyan's blue eyes.

And they were staring right at her.

"Mom?"