The debrief took several hours after Section 13 drove us to a safe house. Moorecroft separated Jess and me, despite my protests. I was too weak to fight back by that point, and Jess was too dazed by the unexpected turn of events to do anything except comply.

“You took your time,” I told Moorecroft.

“As bizarre as this may sound, young man, we have other things to do apart from running around cleaning up your mess. You’ve got a lot of explaining to do. What the actual bloody blazes just happened? Have you any idea how hard it will be for us to cover all of this up?”

I folded my arms and set my chin to stubborn. As tired as I was, I also wasn’t in the mood for a dressing down by some rich toff who barely had a clue about anything.

“First off, this wasn’t my mess at all. Well, mostly it wasn’t. You were right about the Pryces. They had a prison for supernaturals under their mansion. They were experimenting on them and they were planning to open a portal to a magical dimension so they could absorb all the magical power and become actual gods. I mean real, all powerful, all commanding gods. Now they aren’t.”

I paused to let that sink in

“You’re welcome,” I added.

Seven hours passed as Moorecroft drilled me for all the details. Section 13 checked the Pryces’ mansion after confirming that anyone else near to the standing stones of Avebury was dead. The mansion was still blazing away, and by the time the fire brigade got to it, it was a skeletal, collapsing shell. Everything underground had been destroyed, all the equipment smashed and burned.

“What a mess,” Moorecroft muttered once he was satisfied with my account.

I’d ended up telling him everything over the course of the debriefing, which had started out like a full on interrogation and ended with more sympathy than suspicion.

I was too wiped out to care whether Section 13 knew I was an experiment, so even that part came out. I kept Dee out of it, though, and didn’t mention Jess’s absorption of all the magical energy. I was confident she’d keep quiet about it.

Moorecroft, for all his arrogance and veiled threats, was massively out of his depth. He’d been inducted into the world of Section 13 and the supernatural creatures they hunted only two weeks earlier. He was a bureaucrat playing at soldiers, and he hadn’t been remotely prepared for the chaos that ensued while Section 13 was busy getting back on its feet after the attack.

By the time I’d finished relating all the details, he looked more stunned than anything else.

“I had no concept...” he said.

“You and me both.”

“Is it over?” Moorecroft asked me.

“You’re asking me?” I replied with incredulity.

“Frankly, yes. You’re the last man standing in all of this, and the only one with an actual understanding of what’s been going on.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

“That depends on you, I guess. Victoria needs to answer for her crimes. She committed at least one murder that I witnessed, and I’ve no doubt there are others. All of this is her fault. She needs to be found and stopped before she spirals off into whatever mad new scheme she comes up with.”

“And the demons? The supernaturals that escaped from the prison?” Moorecroft replied.

“Some of them went through the portal.”

“Well, that’s something, I suppose,” Moorecroft said.

“Others, well, they’re out there.”

“That is going to be a problem.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. I think most of them will go into hiding after all the years they’ve spent being tortured. The last thing they’ll want to do is to draw attention to themselves.”

Moorecroft nodded.

“There’s something else. The barrier between the demon realm and ours is down. Magic – real magic – as far as I understand it, is coming back. None of us know what the consequences could be.”

Moorecroft folded his hands in front of his face. Tried to comprehend the enormity of what had transpired.

Good luck with that. I was there and even I can’t get my head wrapped around half of it.

Moorecroft considered, then sighed.

“Ethan, I have to be honest here. We’re going to need you on our side in all of this. As much as it pains me to admit that a teenager seems to be more clued in than us, you’ve been right at the centre of it all and came out the other side intact. Whatever comes next, you seem to have the skills and abilities to deal with it somehow, against all the odds.”

Moorecroft paused, choosing his words carefully.

“I’d like you to join Section 13. We’ll train you properly, help you with your powers. You’re not one of them, after all. You were built to be on our side, from what you’ve told me. We’ll need someone like you to help keep fighting the Invisible War.”

I considered the offer. A part of me was tempted even then. To get proper training, to get a better idea of what was really going on and how to use my power.

Then I remembered that Dee and now Jess would be seen as the enemy by Section 13. How long would it be before I was ordered onto a mission to kill them?

I shook my head.

“I’m not interested in hunting and killing supernaturals. All I've seen Section 13 do so far is shoot anyone or anything that isn’t human. It’s not right.”

Moorecroft looked irritated, but conceded the point.

“We’re in the process of changing our policy and goals, Ethan,” Moorecroft replied. “I feel, and so do those above me, that Section 13’s shoot to kill policy has been a touch misguided. We need to keep the public safe, but understanding the supernatural world rather than eliminating it might be in all our interests – especially after the events of tonight. So we’re working on a monitoring and tagging system using cutting-edge technology. We’re putting word out that as long as people aren’t being killed, we won’t be shooting.”

I re-considered the offer, then shook my head.

“I just want to go home and put all this behind me. Pass.”

Moorecroft wrinkled his nose as if I’d let out the worst fart he’d ever smelt. Not used to people refusing him, I thought.

“Very well,” he said. “I could force you to work for us, but given the events of the last few days and your contribution to uncovering the Pryces’ machinations, I’m willing to let it go. For now.”

“Wow, thanks.”

My sarcasm was wasted on him.

“We’ll be keeping close tabs on you, of course, but for now, you’re free to go back to your life.”

I nodded, relieved. The fact was, I hadn’t asked to be thrown into any of this, and I’d done the best I could. I’d been caught between forces beyond my control and men and women too eager to spill blood for their personal causes. Major Wilson. The Pryces. Balthazar. The tortured and the damned locked up in Victoria’s prison. The soldiers of Section 13.

Somehow, I’d negotiated a path through all of them and survived.

It didn’t feel like much of a win, but I was still breathing. So was Jess. So was Dee.

“I suspect you may change your mind,” Moorecroft continued. “When you do, the door will be open,” Moorecroft continued. “We’ll need you to sign the official secrets act, of course.”

“Of course.”

“In the meantime, a deal is a deal.”

“What do you mean?”

“I promised to tell you about your father, Ethan. Here’s everything that we know.”

He handed me a manilla paper file with a dozen sheets of paper in it.

I hesitated.

“No strings?”

“No strings,” Moorecroft nodded.

I took the file and opened it to the first page.