The door shut between us with a loud, solid thunk that made me jump back again. Aurelio patted it lightly and sighed before nodding his head in a particular direction. I followed without saying anything. As he took me upstairs, I found it fascinating that he could move so silently through the halls of the brownstone. The steps that I squeaked under my weight didn’t so much as strain under his feet. I could easily see how he was someone that stalked wildlife and poachers alike through a forest. He had to have been good at his job.

We paused at a door on the second floor. My breath caught in my throat as soon as he opened the door. On the center wall, framed by delicate light, hung a picture of beautiful woman. She had gently curling silver hair and eyes that seemed to stare right through me from the canvas. Her ears came to a sharp point and were pierced with several earrings of various types and gemstones. The painter had also taken great care to incorporate all the lavish details on her gown. “Do you recognize her?” asked Aurelio.

His voice was so quiet that I nearly didn’t hear it.

“No,” I answered truthfully. “But I think I can take a guess. The Queen?”

“My liege and lady. She who only Bianca could rival in my loyalty. I follow her command to the best of my ability. We all do.”

At that moment, I noticed that the painting of the Queen was not the only portrait in the room. Many other people looked down at me from smaller frames. Their expressions ranged from bright and smiling to downright serious. “These are the majority of the other Captains of the Queensmen. Mine’s somewhere near a corner. It’s like a driver’s license picture though. I look terrible.”

I wanted to laugh but something about the room didn’t really give off that kind of atmosphere. Instead I stared with a slack jaw at the portraits around the room. There were so many of them. And these were just the leaders. Every single one of them had their own teams. So many people. “Tell me what’s going through your mind.”

“I didn’t realize just how many Queensmen there were.”

“Not all of them are in this world. Some still operate in Ederlind. Unfortunately, I only have limited contact with them.”

“I thought Ederlind was cut off from us?”

At least that’s what I thought when Luke had given me the spiel last night. Aurelio nodded. “For the most part they are. The Queensmen have access to a few very small openings to keep in contact with others as well as Her Majesty.”

The Queen’s portrait seemed to loom over me. I cast what I hoped was a subtle glance up at it. Part of me half expected her to have moved inside the frame. She hadn’t. “Her magic helps prevent openings from popping up where they shouldn’t. Thankfully, it keeps some of the more horrifying monsters off of Earth but there are still ways to force your way through the Veil.”

“Force their way through?” I blurted out incredulously.

Aurelio walked towards a desk that stood pressed against a wall. He opened a drawer on it’s front and pulled out a hunting knife in a leather belt sheath. “I assume that Luke mentioned something about a civil war and how the Queen’s enemies came here to build an army to stand against her.”

I nodded without saying anything. I watched him as he inspected the knife’s handle without pulling it out of the sheath. Aurelio looked up. “Well first they’d have to subjugate Earth and imagine how much easier that would be if they could bring the really big guns out. This place would be decimated in a matter of weeks.”

“What does that have to do with forcing the Veil open?”

“Luke didn’t tell you about Veil Breakers then?”

“Veil Breakers.” The words rolled off my tongue in an unfamiliar way.

“Is that term at all remotely familiar to you?”

I shook my head. “No but I think I can take a guess at what they do. Do they by chance break their way through the barrier between the two worlds?”

“You catch on quickly.” Aurelio gave me a smirk. Then he held out the knife’s handle to me. He gave a curt nod to me. A silent invitation to take it from him and pull it out of the sheath. I wrapped my fingers around it gingerly. The only weapon I’d ever held in my life was a can of pepper spray at a campus safety demonstration last year. I didn’t think that really counted. Aurelio didn’t say anything as I slide the knife free of the leather. However, I realized there was little danger involved with handling the weapon.

It had no blade. It almost looked like someone had broken it clean off. The sharp edge had long been dulled down to nothing. “I confiscated and destroyed that about thirty years ago when a particularly ambitious Veil Breaker tried to cut an opening just outside the city limits. They use instruments like this to pierce the Veil in places where it is weak. The Veil is exceptionally weak here. We thought it was regaining its strength but something is off…”

Aurelio’s voice trailed off. A shiver ran down my spine and something pushed at the back of my mind. The broken knife weighed my hand down even more. I felt like I remember reading something about the Veil once. A long time ago. My mind just barely wrapped around it. “Once more, tell me what’s going through your mind.”

“If you thought it was getting stronger at one point then it probably had something to do with the fact that you stopped the Veil Breaker from putting cracks in it. And—“

I cut myself off abruptly.

“And?” Aurelio prompted.

“And if it’s weakening again then that means a Veil Breaker is probably the root of the problem.” I finished with convicted certainty. The blind certainty was quickly becoming a more and more familiar thing to me.

I didn’t exactly know how to take that.

“Don’t fight the instincts that come to you. Life will be easier if you don’t.” Aurelio reached forward and took the knife from my hand. He waved the handle in my general direction for emphasis. I shifted a bit at the comment. Something didn’t sit quite right.

“You didn’t say anything to Luke about this. Is this another thing he’s known about and has hid from me?”

“Your brother has no idea about this. A Veil Breaker isn’t something that I advertise to new recruits willy nilly.”

I blinked. “Then why are you telling me?”

“Two reasons.” He held up two fingers before dropping one of them. “Reason number one, you’re not just any old new recruit. You’re an Everlasting like Bianca and I. Colin and your brother are not. There’s no sense in riling them up before being completely sure. You, on the other hand, have a right to know about the possibility of a Veil Breaker.”

“But I’m not a Queensman so…”

“Which brings me to reason number two,” he popped a second finger up. “Veil Breakers aren’t something to take lightly. The smallest crack in the Veil can become a full fledged tear. Those Reapers you saw last night… those are pitiful next to some of the other things I’ve seen. Ogres, ten times taller and uglier, never travel in groups smaller than twenty and can level a city like this in an afternoon. The dragons that live in the Rocky Mountains out west have cousins in Ederlind called Wyrms that literally shear mountains in two. Wraiths suck the life out of their victims and will ally themselves with anyone who promises them a steady, reliable source of prey.”

“Oh my God—” I barely managed to choke the words out of my dry mouth. “Earth would be screwed.”

“Now imagine just how quickly rebels would be able to take over this place with creatures like that.” Aurelio’s voice dropped to an almost inaudible level and my heart stopped.

Luke had said something about the rebels wanting to amass an army here on Earth and then returning to Ederlind. If those type of things were to ever come here then they’d have an army in no time. It might not be right away that they’d be able to create an army able to stand up to the Queen but it would happen eventually. Our world would be theirs though. They’d have all the time they would ever need.

“I don’t want to scare you Gen. However, there’s something that neither one of us can ignore and that’s the fact that someone is more than likely in our city and trying to get through the Veil.”

“Are you trying to tell me that I have no choice on whether or not I become a Queensman? That I have to do it anyways… regardless of how I feel?” I crossed my arms over my chest and stepped away from him.

Aurelio raised his hands into the air, trying to calm me down. “That’s not what I’m saying at all. I meant what I said downstairs. You have a choice. Everyone does but I want to ask you something.”

“And that is?” I asked, still not buying his words one hundred percent.

“Do you love Earth?”

I drew back, blinking. My hands fell slack at my waist. What kind of question was that? I mean I’d never really given it a whole lot of thought but this was where I’d grown up. “Of course I do.”

“And this city? Do you love it as well?”

“I’ve lived my entire life here. What do you think?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Would you ever want to see this city or Earth destroyed?”

“Never!” I snapped suddenly feeling very defensive.

“What about Luke?”

I went rigid. Of all the things to ask me. The answer seemed the most obvious. “He’s my brother. The only family I have left. I don’t know what I’d do without him. You have to understand that feeling too. Look at you and Bianca.”

“Funny you should mention her,” Aurelio told me. “She’s the reason I agreed to take a post with the Queensmen. Bianca jumped at the chance to server the Queen. I was terrified that something would happen to her if I didn’t go along. I did this for her. To be her guardian, as I always have. You have to realize something. Your brother is a Queensman now. If this world starts to burn, the one you so love, Luke’s right on the front line of it all. He’s a talented swordsman but that’s all he is. A swordsman. Not an Everlasting. He will not have the same protection as you would.”

Words fled from me. I wanted to say something. I even opened my mouth to do so. However, absolutely nothing came out. All I could do was stand there and stare at Aurelio. Luke had been putting himself in danger for only God knew how long to protect me. All it would take is one accident or miscalculation and he’d be gone. Just like Dad…

I loved Earth and I definitely didn’t want to see a Veil Breaker unleash more vicious monsters into it. However, Luke would be at the very center of it all if and when it happened. He would die!

“Veil Breakers use dark magic. The last one we met with did some real damage before we were able to stop him.”

Aurelio lightly touched his forearm. His hand curled into a fist tightly as he did so. I wondered what sort of damage had been done to him. I wondered what would happen if Luke met with something like that too. “Having you, the Enchantress, on our side could even the playing field. It could even save our lives if something truly goes South. You could protect Luke better by being at his side than waiting at home for him.”

“You’re right,” I whispered. Realization slowly sunk in. The shield I’d produced last night had been a fluke. I could learn though. No one became an expert in one day right? I didn’t have to be perfect. I just had to be good enough to protect Luke. I think I could do that.

I looked up at Aurelio. “I’ll serve Fairy Queen, protect others, and stand against the Veil Breakers that threaten everything I hold dear.””

A smile spread across Aurelio’s face. He held his hand out to me. “Welcome Genevieve Harper, the Everlasting Enchantress, to our fold.”