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The Invisible Rain nodded. “The Reluctant Recluse was his, and he passed him on to you.”

“Why?” That simple question contained a lifetime of uncertainties.

“To keep the chain unbroken,” the Invisible Rain said, “for a thousand years.”

With a hair-raising cry, the Forever Flame burst into near-blinding flames. Mercury felt his connection to the Invisible Rain snap. And yet, the ghost still stood there. Still visible. Still present.

Of course.

The Forever Flame couldn’t actually sever an attachment; he simply made that attachment impossible to find, and made the ghost impossible to see or hear, except in this Place of Rending.

A thousand years.

“The Reluctant Recluse was the ghost that was stolen here a millennium ago.” Mercury knew it was true the moment he spoke the words.

The stolen ghost himself stepped onto the rock. “Stolen,” he repeated. “Then hidden so I could not be reclaimed by the one I was stolen from.”

“You need to be given back,” Mercury called out over the wind and thunder. “But the one you were stolen from will have been gone for hundreds of years.”

“Two families at war.” The Reluctant Recluse held his gaze.

“One stole from the other.” Mercury was getting closer; he knew he was.

Another slice of pain cut through him. Wallaby was ripped away. Now that the Reluctant Recluse was visible, the Forever Flame would soon be able to tamper with that connection as well.

“The family in the twig-fenced lands or the one among the thorn trees?” Thorn trees. Mercury’s heart thudded at yet another realization. “Thorne. The surname derives from that. The Thornes were one of the families.”

Romulus Thorne. Your father.

A rush of pain. Captain Capitate gone.

“You’ve been with the Thorne family for a thousand years,” Mercury shouted through the ear-piercing wind that blew so hard it threatened to knock him off the rock. “My family stole you from the family with the hurdles surrounding their land.”

The crack in the rock began to pull farther apart, the gap of nothingness threatening to swallow them all. Mercury focused on his connection to the Reluctant Recluse, clinging to it and focusing on it even as it began to twist and strain. The Forever Flame had found it and was working to sever it as well.

“My family stole you. How do I give you back?”

Holly Hock was ripped away. Then Gary the Green.

The pain sent Mercury to his knees. It was happening too fast and in too quick succession. He closed his eyes, breathing through the exhaustion and agony. He had to keep hold of the Reluctant Recluse. Mercury knew this place would never heal if the Forever Flame was able to sever an already hidden attachment.

But Mercury couldn’t keep going much longer.

“Who was the other family?” Mercury wasn’t sure he could be heard. The storm was raging and his strength was waning.

“Mercury Raine,” the Reluctant Recluse said.

“That’s me.”

The ghost shook his head. “Mercury Raine was sent to find you. And he did.”

Mercury Raine. The ghost. The one Mercury had begun calling the Invisible Rain.

Someone touched his hand. It took more effort than it should have to simply look in that direction.

Tacey. She knelt beside him, trembling and weak, but with a determined glint in her eyes. And around them, the air went still. They were in the calm eye of the storm.

“To prepare for the day Mercury leaves you,” Tacey whispered. “I keep hearing my father say that. But he didn’t mean you.” She looked over at the Invisible Rain. “He knew. He knew this day would come, and I needed to be ready.”