Joshua Parker became visible.

Kai immediately forgot his cereal, and lunged forward to pull Vivianna behind him. "What the hell are you doing here?" he said angrily.

"I'm here to put you back where you're supposed to be," said Joshua. "And I'm gonna make sure you can't get out this time."

"Let her go," said Kai, holding his hands up. "Vivi didn't do anything. Just let her walk out the door. This is between you and me."

Joshua scoffed. "That sneaky Traveler wench behind you is the reason why I couldn't pinpoint your location. I guess I underestimated your magic, little girl."

Vivianna just stared at him, not sure how she'd make it to the bedroom for her necklace. "Took you long enough," she said, trying to stall. Maybe Kai could think of a better plan. She stepped out from behind him. Joshua couldn't point the gun at both of them simultaneously. "Why the delay? I would think the leader of the Gemini Coven would be stronger than that."

The man's lip twitched. "You Travelers are always so mouthy. You'd think your business of selling yourself to people would teach you to be quiet."

"I don't like what you're implying," said Vivianna coldly. "You have it all wrong. Then again, you Geminis have always loved to twist the truth. Make us seem like the bad guys when it was you who couldn't handle the idea of immortality."

"How about you quit running your mouth?" said Joshua. "You don't need to be involved in this. It's his punishment. As long as you don't meddle, you can live."

"Fat chance of that," said Vivianna, seeing that the gun was now pointed at her chest, and not Kai's. "I know you want to be able to brag about killing the last Traveler."

"Step aside," said Joshua. "Leave the cabin, and you won't be harmed."

"Vivi, go," said Kai immediately. "Back door. Go."

"I'm not going anywhere," said Vivianna, knowing that there was absolutely no way Joshua wouldn't chase her as soon as he got rid of Kai. "I'm staying with you."

"I'm not sending you two in there together," said Joshua, looking disgusted at the mere idea of it.

"Why?" said Vivianna. "Afraid we'll figure out how to escape? Because there's always a way. We won't have a Bennett witch, but I bet that somewhere in that world, there will be Bennett blood for us to find."

Joshua's hand trembled a bit, seemingly from rage. Though, it became apparent to Vivianna that he'd never actually held a gun before. Why would he? He was a witch. Magic was more powerful than any bullet.

"Go on," she said. "Shoot me. If it's that much of a problem, shoot me."

She was betting he would miss. Betting that it would give them a split second advantage. Kai could use his magic to toss the gun out of Joshua's hands in the brief second where he couldn't reload. Vivianna could run into the room and at least get her necklace. Stand somewhat of a chance.

"Believe me, I'd like nothing more," said Joshua. "But you're not my target today."

"Let her go, and I'll do whatever you want," said Kai. "Don't hurt her. Please, don't hurt her."

It was obviously strange to Joshua, hearing his previously sociopathic son begging him not to hurt someone. When, eighteen years ago, he'd been the one to slaughter four of his own siblings.

"What enchantment have you put on him?" demanded Joshua. "Answer me!"

"She took away my sociopathy," said Kai. "I'm not a sociopath anymore. I feel guilt. You can punish me, if you want. I know I deserve it. But she doesn't. She didn't do anything."

"She's a murderer, just like you," said Joshua. "A parasite. Chances are, she's already inhabited your body and you weren't even aware of it. That's what their kind do. Violate. Steal. Flaunt themselves about."

"Shut up!" snapped Kai. "Stop implying that she's some sort of prostitute!"

"Maybe the better option is to kill the both of you," said Joshua with a slight sneer. "Clearly, you're both too far gone."

"You're just bluffing," said Vivianna before he could turn the gun back on Kai. "You don't have what you need to send him back to the prison world in the first place. You're just trying to get him alone so you can kill him, because you know that even if we're a siphoner and a Traveler, we can overpower you."

"The ideal situation would be murder," said Joshua. "For both of you. But for some reason, when Jo gave me this..." he brought out the Ascendant from his pocket— an exact replica of the one they'd had in 1994. Joshua smirked a bit as he looked over it, "She seemed rather adamant about letting Kai live. Something about seeing a change in him."

"You're lying," said Vivianna, whose heart was beating faster and faster by the second. "Jo wouldn't give that to you. She helped me. She saw Kai taking care of me. She wouldn't have given you a weapon to put him away. We've been here for five weeks, not bothering anyone. Which again, goes back to my earlier inquiry of how you actually found us."

"A Locator Spell told me you were somewhere in the mountains," said Joshua. "As this is unfamiliar terrain to me, I didn't choose to explore it. So I waited in the surrounding area. Had a few old friends keeping an eye out for the two of you. And lo and behold. Yesterday, I happened to see you, shopping. I had one of the saleswomen put a tracker on an item of clothing you bought. I waited until the tracker showed one consistent location for four hours before I made my way up here. I waited til the door opened in the morning."

"If you're gonna hurt us, at least fully debrief us," said Vivianna. "So now, I want you to tell me how you actually got that Ascendant. I think you stole it."

Joshua laughed darkly. "The only thief I see here is you. You Travelers take anything you want and provide nothing in return. You steal lives and objects and you act as though the whole world should be bowing down to you."

"Well, I'm the last one, and if I wanted the world to bow down to me, we'd be staying in a five star hotel that looks like a fucking castle. Not a shitty cabin in the woods. I'll ask you again, how did you get the Ascendant?"

"I suppose liars do know other liars better than anyone. The twins acquired it for me. When I realized Jo was starting to care too much... I distracted her. Had the twins break into her apartment to retrieve it for me. Had a decoy put in its place. She still thinks it's tucked safely in her bureau."

"Hard to believe you're answering all this willingly," said Kai nervously. He knew exactly why Vivianna was stalling, but he was getting the feeling that it was futile. There wouldn't be a way for them to get away. Not when Joshua had a gun.

"Well, I see no reason to lie after being caught. I am an honest man after all. And it's not like either of you will be able to tell a soul the truth."

"An honest man," said Vivianna with a scoff. "Right. Run me through why you're better than us? What, because you're a 'normal' witch? At least the Travelers don't treat their own children like shit."

Joshua suddenly held up his finger and cast her a devilish smirk. "I was wondering why you looked familiar. That's it. I know who you are. You're Valeria and Julian's daughter."

Vivianna went rigid, and he started to laugh again. "I remember. Los Angeles in 2006. They were in the middle of a spell, attempting to break free from the Travelers. They wished to unlink their family from that magic. Cure themselves. When we caught them, we saw the photographs of their two children. They were so insistent that you were not in the area. When we killed them, they were rather loud. Screaming nonstop..."

"Shut up," she said weakly.

"They were begging us not to go after you..."

"Stop talking..."

"And then, I got to watch them die in agony."

He swiped his hand out, and Vivianna let out a scream as he forced the memory into her head.

"They're just children," she saw her mother saying pleadingly, through Joshua's eyes. "They don't know about being Travelers, please let them go."

"That's a lie, isn't it?" She heard Joshua's voice coming from her body. "Look at these pictures. This girl right here, she looks to be fifteen. Same age as my youngest kids. And this boy... he's already an adult. Over eighteen for sure. They know something. And we're gonna find them as soon as we're done with you."

"Please!" She saw her father begging beside her mother. The memory had such dim lighting, she'd only just noticed that her parents were chained up. "Not our children... don't hurt them... they can do the magic but they don't understand what it means! We haven't let them meet other Travelers!"

"How precious," said Joshua sarcastically. "They'll become killers, just like the rest of you. This city may be big, but we'll get to them, one way or another. I have one of my best already on her way to them. I expect they'll be dead by nightfall."

"NO!" Valeria screamed. "THEY'RE CHILDREN! THEY'VE DONE NOTHING TO YOU!"

Joshua had kicked her in the face, forcing her to the ground beside her husband. "They're Travelers. All of you are scum." He turned back to his fellow witches. "Burn them alive. Let them know what it's like to be incinerated. After all, the Travelers do like their fire."

Vivianna was horrified. Unable to move. Unable to exit the memory. Joshua had just stood there, watching as his fellow witches chanted, "Phasmatos incendia," lighting the two bodies on fire. She heard her parents screeching, begging for mercy. Knowing that they were never going to see their children again. She was made to watch until the final moment, when all that was left was a pile of ashes.

"Collect the ashes," said Joshua, snapping his fingers at another witch. "Put them together with the ashes of the children, once you get them."

Vivianna remembered what came after that. A Traveler had managed to swipe the urn from that witch, and had come to warn them. After giving them the ashes, the Vivianna and Julian had grabbed a vial of their parents' blood, left behind from a spell they'd been working on. They distributed it between each other before rushing out of the city.

And then, not long after, Vivianna had been tasked with killing the Gemini witch who Joshua had sent to find them. It was where she earned her scar, the one throbbing in her chest now.

Joshua laughed maliciously at the sight of Vivianna holding her own chest and sinking down. The memory overpowering her, and leaving her in a state of shock.

"I guess it's time for us to have a chat, isn't it?" said Joshua, turning the gun on Kai.

"Vodux!" Kai said, causing the gun to fly off to the side just as he ducked. Joshua ignored the gun, and swiped his hands out, causing all the objects on the kitchen table to fly toward the ground, with the intent of hitting either Kai or Vivianna. Kai only just managed to keep a heavy dish from slamming into her head.

"Hurt her again, and I'll fucking kill you!" snarled Kai, getting up, now holding a kitchen knife. He swiped his hand out, causing a vase to soar through the air toward Joshua, who had to raise his arm and create a barrier that left the vase shattering upon impact.

"You never change, do you?" said Joshua. "No spell could ever make a sociopath forget his ways. You just need blood, don't you?"

Kai suddenly yelled out in pain, holding his head as Joshua stepped toward him, pressing his hand into the air with the aim of causing him pain.

"As soon as I lock you away for good," sneered Joshua, "I'm going to burn her alive. Just like her parents."

"STOP!" yelled Kai, trying to overcome the spell. But he was growing weaker by the second, already starting to see black spots in his vision. "DON'T HURT HER!"

"Oh, I have to," said Joshua wickedly. "You see, when I arrived, I looked in the window, hoping to find the living room empty so that I could get inside and kill you in your sleep. Instead, I saw you both there, on the couch. I had a terrible feeling when I learned from the twins that Jo had her as a patient. I made sure your sister ran a blood test to ensure that girl wasn't already pregnant. There aren't blood tests here. The only way to make sure that my bloodline doesn't merge with that of the Travelers is to kill her. If there is any child already growing inside of her, it won't be able to continue if she's dead."

"She's not pregnant!" said Kai angrily, forcing himself to his feet. "She's not a threat to you! If it's me you want, take me! But don't you dare lay a hand on her!"

He ignored the pain in his head, barreling forward and shoving Joshua into the wall, which broke the spell immediately. He started to slash around with the knife, not expecting his father to manage to keep up.

"You really believe you changed, don't you?" Joshua sneered, punching him in the nose. "What, now you fancy yourself becoming a father, or something? With that dirty little whore? You forget that you're still my son. I won't have you giving rise to a hybrid brat."

"What are you so afraid of?" snapped Kai, retaliating with a slash across Joshua's face. "What's got you so worried? It isn't just the bloodlines mixing, is it?"

"No child has ever been born with the ability to perform Traveler and witch magic. Witches have attempted to learn Traveler Magic for centuries, and it has never gone well for them. If it were to inherit the siphoner trait, it would be the strongest witch born up to date. A tribrid child has already been born in New Orleans. This would be catastrophic—"

"So you're just afraid of the unknown," spat Kai, who had no idea what the hell a 'tribrid' would entail. What was it, part mermaid? "Let me guess, you think that that would bring about the end of the Gemini Coven? Or the end to all witches? Or, let me guess, a kid that strong would be destined to be best friends with the tribrid kid, whoever the hell that is."

"It doesn't matter!" Joshua snarled. "It won't be happening. I will not allow it."

Meanwhile, Vivianna was only just snapping out of the trance, having watched over and over again as her parents were burned alive. She turned her head around slowly, scanning her surroundings. The gun was on the floor, far from her reach. Kai and Joshua were fighting, physically. Magic had been forgotten.

Vivianna scrambled up to her feet, sprinting to the bedroom. She grabbed wildly at the nightstand, taking her necklace, and the closest thing to it— the sealed letters for Jo, Liv, and Luke that Kai had written.

She figured it was her only chance of telling someone what might happen to them. The only chance that anyone would know they had been attacked. The phone was with Kai. The laptop, charging in the living room. She could already hear Kai being overpowered magically. She knew they didn't stand a chance.

Gripping the necklace tightly, she pressed her palm to the letters, praying that this would work. They needed to get to Jo. It was most important that she read them and seek Kai out, because only then would someone realize something was wrong. That someone had trapped them again.

"Poslat písmena dvojče!" she cried out. The letters vanished into thin air, and she wasted no time in getting back to her feet, sprinting to the main room.

Kai had been knocked out. He was bleeding from the side of his head, and holding a kitchen knife as if he'd tried to stab his father, but been unsuccessful. Joshua had the Ascendant in hand, and was starting to chant the all-too-familiar incantation that would send him back to the prison world.

"NO!" Vivianna held the necklace as she swiped her hand out. The Ascendant flew out of the man's grasp, but unfortunately for her, didn't shatter upon impact with the ground. She made to get it, while he lunged at her.

He slammed her onto the ground, wrestling and trying to get the necklace out of her hands.

"Bolest!" she screamed, causing him to yell out in pain. "Trest hoře—"

He smacked her across the face, and grabbed her wrist, snapping it to the side and causing her to howl as he broke her fingers, forcing her to stop clenching her hand around the necklace.

"Incendia!" he yelled, pointing his hand at the fireplace, causing a fire to spring up. "Motus!"

Vivianna screamed out as the necklace was thrown into the fire, starting to melt immediately. "No— no, no, no—"

"Invisique."

Joshua disappeared, and she felt the weight lifted off of her body. She lunged to where Kai was, taking the kitchen knife from him, and holding it up, looking around wildly.

"You'd be a fool to try and fight me like this," she said shakily, though she didn't feel too confident. "I've actually killed people without magic."

She gulped as she walked in a small circle, still holding the knife. The door hadn't opened. She knew he hadn't gone anywhere. But she could hear and see nothing, which didn't exactly give her a good idea of where he was.

Someone grabbed her from behind, and tossed her into the nearest wall. A portrait hanging on it crashed down, glass shattering over her body. Joshua was still invisible as he pulled her up, ripping the knife out of her hands and throwing it aside before shoving her to the ground in front of the fire, and kicking her right in the stomach.

"AHH!" She tried to curl up in a fetal position to shield herself, but that would have required tucking both arms in, and the broken one was hurting far too much for her to move it efficiently.

He kicked her again, as if trying to move her into the fire. He became visible after doing it a third time. "Now, you're gonna die just how your parents did," he sneered. He kicked her in the face this time, and she spit out blood. She figured he'd pick her up and toss her in, but instead, he turned around, and made a beeline for the Ascendant before going to Kai. Clearly, his priority was killing Kai. He must have known that tossing her body into the fireplace could burn the entire cabin down.

Joshua extracted a small vial of blood, pouring it over the Ascendant before starting to chant, "Sanguinem filio, sanguinem effurgarex perpetuum—"

Kai's unconscious body started to twitch, and Vivianna knew she had only around a minute before he disappeared. She wasn't going to let him go into that prison world alone.

She forced herself toward the table, where the urn of Traveler ashes had already been smashed from the altercation between Kai and his father. She grabbed a clump, forcing it into her injured hand, glad that Kai's father was ignoring her. She looked up, seeing a small journal sticking out of his pocket. A good distraction.

She managed to get onto her knees, crawling toward him. She swiped her hand up, grabbing the journal, which caused Joshua to look down at her momentarily.

She threw the ashes up just as he finished chanting the last bit of the spell. He started to cough, and the Ascendant whirred. Vivianna threw her body onto Kai's, making physical contact before Joshua could process the situation and move her aside.

The two disappeared together, and reappeared in the exact same cabin, back in 1994.

"Malachai," she whimpered, cradling her hand and tapping him incessantly with the other one. "Malachai... Kai... oh god... please wake up... please..."

He gasped as she slammed her hand onto his chest. "Vivi," he said, looking at her hand. "What the hell happened?"

"We're back in the prison world," she said miserably. "I tried to stop him, I tried—"

He pulled her into a hug. "I don't care. I don't care, Vivi, I thought he was going to kill you."

"He tried..." she drew back, and Kai carefully took her hand, murmuring a quick spell to heal her. She bit her lip hard as her bones started to mend. "My parents... he killed my parents... he sent that Gemini witch after me... and he... he burned my necklace. I don't have any Traveler ashes, Kai, I don't have any magic."

Kai held up his hand, before going pale. "And I just used the last of mine on you."