*Adrik ” 

Sephie stood on her toes and whispered, “I’m gonna go take my contacts out for like ten minutes. I really need to rub my eyes for a few minutes where nobody can see me. I’ll be fine. You stay. I’ll be right back. Promise,” she said. She kissed my cheek, but was already heading toward the bedroom before I could protest. 

I noticed Ivan catch her eye before she turned down the hallway. She made a motion like she wanted to rub her eyes, so he understood what she was going to do. He stayed with the rest of us, but it was obvious he had wanted to follow her just as I did. 

I continued the conversation with Vitaliy and Trino, but kept an eye on the hallway, waiting for her to return. I glanced at my watch every few minutes. She said she needed ten minutes, so I wasn’t going to worry until ten minutes had passed. 

When she didn’t come back after ten minutes, I started to worry. I caught Ivan’s eye. He was also starting to worry. Vitaliy, completely oblivious to my growing unease, called Ivan over to ask him a few questions. 

Twenty minutes had passed and we still hadn’t seen Sephie come back. Vitaliy and Trino were still in deep discussion, but I couldn’t think about anything but Sephie. I knew her eyes were bothering her, but I didn’t think it would take her this long. 

After thirty minutes, I sent Ivan to go check on her. He was gone for just a minute before he reappeared in the hallway, indicating that I needed to come with him. I excused myself quickly and followed him back to the bedroom. 

Sephie was sitting on the end of the bed, completely awake, but completely zoned out. She’d taken her contacts out, like she said. We could tell because her eyes couldn’t pick a color to stick to. 

“I tried to snap her out of it when I came back here a minute ago, but she didn’t respond,” Ivan said. “I’ve never seen her like this before.” 

I put my hands on her shoulders, talking to her, trying to get her to respond. She just stared blankly ahead. For twenty more minutes, she was completely nonresponsive. I couldn’t get through to her. Ivan couldn’t get through to her. We knew something was happening, because her eyes never stopped changing, but we had no clue what was happening. 

“Should we call Andrei or Misha? Maybe one of them can figure out what the he ll is going on,” Ivan said. 

“They still don’t know about her eyes, I’m liking keeping that a secret a little too much right now. I will if I have to, but not yet,” I said. I knelt down) in front of her, my hands still on her shoulders. “Sephie? Sephie, love. I need you to wake up. Please wake up. Please come back to me,” I was really starting to get worried. She’d never been this unresponsive before. “She’s not responding. She’s never zoned out this completely before. I don’t know 

what to do.” 

“Can you feel anything from her? I don’t feel anything bad, at least, but I don’t feel anything good, either,” Ivan said. “Her eyes are going apeshit though.” 

Finally. She giggled. She still had a blank stare, but at least she made some kind of noise. 

“Sephie??” I said. I was almost desperate to hear her voice. 

She reached up, rubbing her eyes. She blinked, then rubbed her eyes again, saying, “I’m okay. I’m sorry. She’s sorry, too. She said it’ll never happen again.” She finally pulled her hands away from her eyes, but it still took her a few seconds to focus on us both in front of her. 

It took Ivan and I a few seconds to realize what she’d said. I stood up, feeling my anger coming on strongly. I glanced at Ivan, who was clearly bristled as well. “Who’s she? And what won’t happen again?” we both said. 

She finally looked like she could focus. She smiled sweetly at both of us, standing up between us. “I’m very sorry. That’s never happened before. I didn’t even know it could happen,” she said. “I’m very sorry I worried you both.” She reached up and placed a hand against each of our faces. 

“What happened? Did you zone out?” I asked. She shook her head no. 

“This one is gonna be hard to believe. Your mother and I had a chat,” 

“How is that possible?” I asked. 

1 

“Don’t ask me. I can’t explain the logistics. I came in here, took my contacts out like I said I was going to, then I sat on the bed so I could fully enjoy rubbing my eyes. I felt a breeze and when I looked up, she was standing in front of me, as clear as you two are now. I heard her voice the other day, but this time I could see her,” she said. She turned to look at me, smiling her sweet smile up at me. “You have her eyes.” 

“You heard her voice? When?” Ivan asked. 

“When we took a walk with Vitaliy. Adrik’s mother has always known that he would find me. She’s also always known that he would find all of you, as well. She told Vitaliy so. She wanted me to tell him that she was right and he should’ve listened to her,” she said, 

“That is the kind of petty passive-aggressive behavior that I will live for as a ghost,” Ivan said, laughing. 

“That wasn’t all she wanted me to tell him, but I think the rest of it is for Vitaliy only,” she said, smacking his arm. 

“What did she tell you this time?” he asked, as he grabbed her arm to keep her from smacking him again. He spun her around, facing away from him and holding her arms so she couldn’t smack him anymore, wrapping her up in a bear hug, obviously relieved she was okay. It gave me a chance to see her eyes change to green as she was laughing with him. 

“She wanted to thank me. And she also made me promise that I would tell Vitaliy that he’s a cheeseball,” she said, still laughing with Ivan’s arms wrapped around her. 

I couldn’t help but feel complete relief that she was okay, but I was still a little taken aback by what had happened. I could tell that Sephie was holding back, but I knew she was waiting until we were alone to tell me the rest. 

“I’m glad you’re okay, princess. You had us worried,” Ivan said, finally letting her go. 

“Because my eyes were going apeshit?” she asked, giggling as she walked to me. 

“Ivan’s never seen them change as it happens before. They gave him a show. I was trying not to worry too much, because I never saw them go wh ite, but it was still concerning,” I said. 

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. “I’m only just beginning to get a handle on what each color means. I don’t know what it means when they can’t pick a color or why they won’t pick a color,” she said. 

“Neither of us felt anything from you while you were zoned out. You were completely numb,” I said. 

“That’s weird. Maybe it was like I was dreaming?” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “You only feel me if I’m having a nightmare. Good dreams don’t set off any alarm bells. Lena is a very nice woman. Not scary at all for a ghost.” 

We heard a knock on the door. “That’s Misha. He’s worried too,” she said. 

Ivan went to the door and opened it, revealing a very worried Misha. “You guys disappeared. Is everything okay?” 

Ivan turned toward Sephie, a questioning look on his face. “How did you know it was him and not one of the other guys?” 

“I don’t know. I just did,” she said. 

I looked at Ivan and Misha. “Everyone is okay. Give us five minutes and we’ll be out. They both nodded, Ivan closed the door behind him. 

*Five minutes? Really? You couldn’t have said to give us an hour?” she said, a mischievous grin on her face as she slid her hands around my waist, grabbing my a ss.