"I was horseback riding with my boyfriend Nic," Alyssa said as she sat huddled in a big blanket. She had a sip of her hot chocolate before continuing, "Then three fairies showed up and distracted me. I think they enspelled me? Whatever they did, I forgot about Nic and followed them instead."

She shuddered, "They convinced me to play some sort of game with them? They told me Princess, my horse, was unhappy and wanted to be free. That she didn't deserve to be treated like a pet. They got me to make a bet or something, and of course I lost. I'm sure it was rigged, or they tricked me somehow to make sure I'd lose."

"Whatever," she sighed as she slowly shook her head. "The point was, they sent Princess through their portal thing, back to wherever they came from. They claimed she'd be free and happy there."

Alyssa shuddered again before she continued, "Then they turned me into a fox and told me I had to serve as their pet. They said it was forever, that I'd be their pet fox for the rest of my life. I didn't think I'd ever be normal again..."

Kaylee and I sat together on the sofa across from Alyssa, we'd managed to get her into the house and tried to make her comfortable and everything. At first we thought about calling the police, but we quickly dismissed that idea since we had no idea what to tell them. And we didn't know yet how much Alyssa knew about us, but we definitely didn't want her telling anyone that we were magic and there were fairies and she'd been turned into a fox and all that.

"Do you know if they had any other pets? Or did you hear them mention any other people they might have messed with?" Kaylee asked. "There was a hiker who went missing about a month before you did, as far as I know he's still missing."

The woman frowned, "They had a really small pet dog for a while. It wasn't a person though, it originally belonged to some older couple? The fairies shrank it then kept it as their own."

She glanced at me and added, "Whatever you did to save your friend, that's when the dog returned to normal size. It ran off after that, I don't know what became of it. And I don't know what happened to your missing hiker, sorry."

I was a little surprised to find out the fairies shrank the dog rather than teleporting it away, and even more surprised to find out that when I dispelled the shrink spell on Kaylee that also restored the dog, considering I didn't see it and had no idea it was around.

Meanwhile Kaylee sighed, "Some other fae probably got to the hiker then. Maybe it was Brian after all, on his way back home?"

"Maybe," I grimaced.

Neither of us said anything but I was sure Kaylee felt it too, like having Alyssa turn up out of the blue like that was kind of tying up a loose end from the 'incident' back in July. And it would have been nice to find some closure on the other one, like if there was some way to save the hiker. Or at least find out for sure what happened to him.

Instead I looked back at our guest and asked, "How'd you find us? And why? It seemed like you wanted to tell us something?"

Alyssa sighed and drained the last of her cocoa. She set the mug down then pulled the blankets tighter around herself. "I was watching you and your friends in the woods, every time you girls were there. I saw what you all did, heard what you all said. I watched you seal the portal late one night. I even saw you banish the fairies who tormented me? I couldn't do anything at the time, they'd left me to guard their little grove. I was to watch over it and let them know if anything happened there?"

She sighed again and shook her head, "Something finally happened there. Only the fairies were gone so I couldn't alert them? And I guess I thought about you girls. I knew you were magic, and I suppose I thought I ought to warn you instead. I don't know, it sounds weird now that I say it? It made more sense when I was a fox. Anyways it took forever to find you, considering I had no idea who you were. And uh, my resources were pretty limited, being a fox and all. Basically all I had to go on was your scent, and that only worked because you're not human."

I cringed slightly, while Kaylee asked her "What happened at the grove? And by grove, do you mean the little clearing where their portal used to be?"

"Yeah," Alyssa nodded. "Sorry could I get something to eat? Something warm? God, I haven't had cooked food in ages. How long's it been? What's the date today?"

The cute redhead grimaced, "It's December fourth. And I'll go put on some soup, that ought to help warm you up and it shouldn't be too hard on your stomach."

"Damn," Alyssa sighed. "That's... It was July. Early July when they got me? It's been almost half a year..."

She looked like she might start to cry, and I went to help comfort her while Kaylee was in the kitchen. It took Alyssa a couple minutes before she was ready to move, then I helped her into the kitchen as well and got her seated at the table. She kept the blanket around herself, and after a few deep breaths she continued her story.

"So um," she frowned for a few seconds. "Oh right, the grove. I'm not sure of the date, days kind of blur together when they're all exactly the same and you don't have access to a calendar? It was around the full moon though. Anyways what happened is the portal came back. I know you girls talked about sealing it, you made it so the fairies couldn't get back home and nobody else on the other side could come here? Well somebody reopened it, and someone came through it."

Kaylee and I exchanged a worried glance. I asked Alyssa, "Was it those three fairies? Are they back?"

"They can't come back even if the portal's open," Kaylee responded. "I banished them, that prevents them from returning. So this was someone else."

Alyssa shook her head, "It wasn't a fairy. It was some guy? He looked human but he didn't smell human."

She went on to describe him, "He was tall and slim, with short dark hair. Kind of generically attractive? Maybe in his twenties or thirties?"

"That sounds like Brian," I said as my eyes widened. He was yet another loose end, we kind of ignored him after leaving him tied up in the hospital room back in June.

Kaylee frowned, "The full moon was two weeks ago. If he's back, he's got to be planning something. We need to warn your moms, and get the rest of the club involved."

"Yeah," I sighed. "Nina said he'd be back eventually. He's probably cooked up some plan to finish Socha's work without my sister's help."

The cute redhead suggested, "Call your moms Cass, let them know. The soup's almost ready so I'll take care of Alyssa while you're doing that."

I nodded, then went back into the living-room and found my purse. I was reluctant to get my parents involved, but I knew Kaylee was right. Even with two out of three protective circles around that shard I was still in danger since Brian would know what to do to remove them.

And I definitely wasn't ready for that yet. I was pretty sure I'd need at least another couple weeks before I was ready to try my idea.

So I pulled out my phone and tapped the icon for home. Mom answered on the second ring.

"Hi hon," she greeted me. "Is everything all right? How's your date going?"

I blushed but replied, "The um, date was ok? But something's come up. It's kind of a long story but we need to talk. And actually we could probably use some help? We're at Kaylee's house and we've got a human here, who's spent the last five months turned into a fox thanks to some fairy pranksters. Also Brian might have come back to town at the last full moon, so he's probably getting ready to try something."

Mom was silent for a few seconds as all that kind of sank in. Then she stated, "I'll let your mum and sister know. We'll be over there in five minutes."

"Thanks mom," I said before we disconnected.

I went back to the kitchen in time to hear Kaylee saying, "...surprised you're so calm Alyssa. After everything you've been through?"

The woman was hunched over a big bowl of soup, with a look of bliss on her face as she took in spoonful after spoonful of the thick broth and chunks of meat and veggies.

"I'm not calm," she sighed as she shook her head. "I'm numb. I'm in shock. And I'm starving. Give me another half hour to get past all that, then I might be recovered enough to start screaming."

Kaylee grimaced, "Please don't scream. We'll do what we can to help you, but I'd rather not have the neighbours calling the police on us."

"My parents will be here in a few minutes, along with Nina." I announced. "I guess I'll post to the group chat too?"

"Might as well," the cute redhead agreed.

Within a half hour we had my family along with all of Club Luna there at Kaylee's house. My mom, Melanie, Cerys, and Melody were all in the living-room with Alyssa. She'd returned to one of the comfy chairs in there after finishing her soup, and continued to stay huddled up in the blankets while the others tried to help her deal with stuff. The two werewolfs and the shape-shifter had experience with transformations of course, and the angel was there to help with healing magic and general 'caring mom' energy.

Meanwhile me and Kaylee were in the kitchen with mum, Nina, Paige, and Brooke. The six of us were sitting around the table, discussing the implications of Brian's return.

Nina said quietly, "My guess is he's either aiming for the next full moon, or the winter solstice? But I don't think we should assume that means Cass is safe until then. He could still make a move at any time."

"I can't stay hidden away at home for the next two or three weeks," I protested. "And I'm absolutely not going to sit around doing nothing while my friends and family go looking for this guy. I'm not scared of him."

I glanced at my little sister then added with a smile, "I have it on good authority that Brian's a dweeb."

That made Nina smile, but no-one else thought it was funny.

My mum sighed, "Assuming Brian's going to try and stick as close as he can to the original plan, he's probably found a place to stay here in town. Possibly a house, but he might have found something else, like a disused barn or a closed business. He'll need to prepare a ritual space, and he won't be looking for you until he has everything else ready."

"That day at the hospital he tried to get Cass to take some questionable drugs," Kaylee said. "Maybe something to knock her out? Sleeping pills or something like that? Then he could have taken her to whatever he had prepared."

I nodded, "And when that didn't work he was going to hit me with a big ball of magic. I guess it was a spell, but the way things were then it probably would have blown open the last set of runes. Luckily Melanie stopped him."

Paige asked, "Nina, do you know what he was planning back in June? You were still working with him at that point weren't you?"

My little sister blushed and stared down at the table. She looked and sounded guilty as she replied, "Kaylee's right, he was supposed to get Cass unconscious or asleep. Then he'd signal me and I'd teleport both him and her to that cavern you all ended up in."

She continued quietly, "Teleporting people like that is kind of tricky for me. I'm not good at scrying so I couldn't just teleport Cass away with all of you around her. So when Brian didn't check in like he was supposed to I tried to get Cass to move away from the rest of you, but you all stuck with her. That's why you all got teleported with her."

"So you and Brian were going to do the ritual at that cave?" Kaylee asked. I was almost surprised that she didn't sound angry or accusing. She sounded like she was just asking for clarification.

Nina nodded quietly, then Kaylee asked "Is it important to be underground? Or in a natural space? I'm wondering if that means a house or abandoned building won't be good enough. Maybe we should be looking for caves?"

My mum shook her head, "I don't remember anything in Socha's notes saying the ritual had to be performed underground."

"Yeah," my sister agreed. "We were going to use that cave because it was isolated and secure, but it wasn't a specific requirement of the ritual."

She looked at Kaylee and added, "It was a good idea though."

Brooke had been mostly quiet, but she asked Nina "I don't suppose you have anything that was connected to Brian? Something that belonged to him? I could use it to scry for him, and that would probably save us a lot of time."

"Sorry," my sister shook her head. "Brian and I don't like each other, we were only working together because of Socha."

I looked to my mum and asked, "I don't suppose you have any way of finding him? Can you scry for fae?"

She shook her head again, "Sorry Cass, neither your mom or I can selectively scry for fae like that."

At that point mom came into the kitchen, she moved to stand next to mum. She let us all know, "Alyssa is ready to go home, so I'm going to drive her. We've agreed on something of a cover story? Cass, Kaylee, on your way back from your date you found a dazed and hungry woman wandering on the street by the ravine. You brought her to our place, where Tanya and I helped her out."

"I think it's best that we don't get you or your family involved Kaylee," she added. "This way if the authorities want to come and speak with anyone, they'll likely talk with Tanya and I. I've already spoken with Alyssa about the importance of keeping our secrets, and she understands that telling authorities about fairies and foxes and magic will only make things worse for her in the long run."

Mum frowned, "She's going to need more help than just a bowl of soup and a drive home. The poor girl's been through so much."

"I know," mom nodded. "I'll talk to her more in the car, and let her know she can come to us for help when she needs it, or when she's ready."

With that decided, mom left with Alyssa while the rest of Club Luna came to join us in the kitchen. It was crowded though with all eight of us plus mum in there. Cerys asked, "So what did you all figure out here? What's the plan, how are we going to track down that fae?"

Paige shook her head, "We don't know yet how we're going to find him, but I think there's something else we should take care of first? We need to go back to Monora Forest and seal the portal again, before anything else comes through. It's a public safety issue, and it's potentially been sitting open for the last two weeks."

Kaylee frowned, "That ritual needs to be done at midnight. I'm not going to be able to go on a school night."

Melanie pointed out, "This isn't a school night, and we've got time. It's short notice, but who's up for a late-night winter hike in the woods?"

That led to several sighs and groans, but nobody backed out.

"Cerys, are you feeling up to participating?" Paige asked the young blonde. "I know you've retired from magic, but you led the ritual when we did it the first time. And it took four of us."

The new werewolf grimaced, "I'll be there. Kaylee, maybe you can take the lead on it this time? I'll try and back you up with the spiritual magic, but I'm probably rusty. I haven't done any magic since around the middle of August."

Kaylee nodded, "Of course Cerys."

"We'll need to pick up some boxes of salt," Brooke pointed out, "But I'm in. I've got my car here, so I can take at least a few of us over there."

Melody nodded, "Same. We can split up, four in a car. I'll need someone to tell me where we're going anyways."

We spent the next few minutes explaining the ritual and everything to Melody, then my mum got to her feet.

She let us know, "I'm going to head home now. You girls stay safe please. Cass, be careful. And Nina, please look out for Cass."

I rolled my eyes while my little sister replied, "I will."

Then Kaylee grumbled, "When we finally get our hands on Brian, we're going to do the banishing ritual on him to make sure he can't ever come back."

Nobody had a problem with that.

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