We're not alone here.

The thought thundered in Matt's mind as he stared down at the reptile-thing. It had been killed by someone else. Allie said they were knife wounds, and she would know.

Which meant that someone had been nearby when his wife was being attacked. Someone with a weapon. Someone who knew how to use that weapon to defend themselves well enough to kill a dangerous predator.

Someone who had not helped her when she'd been hurt.

Matt felt a little pit of darkness open up right at the bottom of his soul. His wife had been here, bleeding out, injured to the point of death. Whoever had been here couldn't have helped but see the flare. It would have been visible for miles. But despite that, they hadn't shown themselves. Hadn't lifted a finger to help Allie when she'd been so close to…

Up until just that moment, Matt would not have believed it possible to hate someone you'd never met.

"Wait, there's people here?" Bel asked, staring back and forth between her family members and the gator-cat. "We need to contact them! Maybe they can help–Us?" Her voice hiccuped as she saw the expression on Matt's face.

"No," Allie spoke before he could. "We don't know anything about them except that they were able to kill one of these things, and they've remained hidden from us. They could be dangerous."

She looked up at Matt and held his gaze for a long moment. Yeah. She'd gotten to the same conclusion he had. Whoever these people were, their first interaction had not exactly demonstrated 'friendliness'.

And there was no way for the family to know just how many of them might be out there, either. Not without going scouting. And the only person here who might be any good at that at all, besides Allie who still was on the injured list, was Dinah. And neither of them were going to send out an inexperienced teenager into the woods alone to look for signs that a possible enemy–on whose home turf they were currently standing–might be keeping tabs on them.

For a second he wanted nothing more than to order everyone to pack up and return to the Dilligaf. But even as the words formed in his throat, he stomped down on them. Allie was still hurt, everyone was tired, night was coming, and if they did decide to make the trek back, he would have to carry Allie the entire way back. She wouldn't be able to fight, and neither would he if they were ambushed. And as much as he loved his children, he did not want them to be the only viable fighters available if this unknown presence made itself known and turned out to be hostile. Allie's quick weapons training had taught them how to shoot guns with rudimentary accuracy. It had not taught them how to fight.

"We need to stay here tonight," he murmured to his wife. She looked at him, and he saw the same calculations flash through her eyes as well before finally settling on the same conclusion. She nodded, grudgingly. It was not a great idea. Not if whoever was out there WAS an enemy. They knew the family was here now. They could even now be making all kinds of plans.

But what choice did they have?

The question smacked into the middle of Matt's brain and sat there, staring at him. What choice do you have, Matthew Albright?

He looked down at his wife, healed back from the brink of death. He looked at Lucas, staring raptly at the gator-cat thing like he was trying to prise the secrets of the universe from it. Bel was staring outward, along with Dinah, scanning the brush at the edge of the clearing as if it concealed hidden dangers. And Olivia…

Olivia was looking at him. Her eyes were wide and hopeful, like she expected him to have answers for everything.

And behind him, hidden from sight at this angle by one of the rubble mounds that dotted the clearing, a golden coin spun lazily in midair.

What choice do you have?

Damn.

"Bury the body" he heard himself say. "And the rest of them." Then he looked down at Allie and took a deep breath. "Let's go back to the fire. We need to talk."

He was a little surprised, as everyone moved away from the dead creature, to find that his mind was already made up. He was even more surprised to find that it had been made up within seconds of Lucas placing his hands on his mom and magicing her well.

He could feel Allie's tension against him as they moved back to the fire, still blazing merrily away in its pit. The flames warmed him, and brought back some of the life to Allie's features. He carefully lowered her back down to her rock. No one said anything, but Allie was watching him. She knew what was coming. She'd always been able to tell when he was struggling with something, and nine times out of ten she was able to call what his decision was going to be. It was one of the things he loved about her, and one of the things that irked him to no end.

Love could be like that sometimes.

"Allie–" he started, but she reached over and placed a finger on his lips, cutting him off.

"I know," she said quietly. "It scares me like anything, but I know."

"I don't like it," he admitted, shoulders slumping now that he knew he wasn't going to have to try and convince her. "Scares me right down to my boots, if I'm being honest."

"But Lucas has shown that it can be worked with. We need to figure out how to use it safely."

They both turned to look at the coin, still spinning in the air above the Alpha's body.

"It can't just be us, though," he said, not looking back at her. "They all need to have it. We're going to need every edge we can get."

"I know." Allie's voice was a whisper.

They stayed like that for a long moment, holding each other, wrestling with the thoughts streaming through their heads. From around them, the sounds of spades chopping into earth started to ring out as the kids started burying the bodies of the gator-cats.

"Olivia is going to have a field day," Allie finally said, and the way she said it drew a little laugh from Matt.

"She's going to be absolutely insufferable," he agreed, smiling.

"We're going to be okay, right?"

Matt drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. For a second, he was tempted to just let out an easy lie. A simple 'of course we are', and be done with it. It was the easy path.

Instead, he wrapped his arm around his wife and squeezed her gently.

"I hope so," he said. "And as long as we're together and doing our best, then I'm confident that God will get us the rest of the way there."

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She snorted. "You were just about to say 'yes' just to get it over with, weren't you?"

"Never even crossed my mind."

"Uh-huh." she poked him in the ribs, right where that bruise was that she'd give him just a little while earlier. "You suck at lying, mi corazon."

"I am an excellent liar," he said with affronted dignity. "You're just some kind of ridiculously overpowered lie detector."

"Si. It's called 'being a mother'."

It was his turn to snort.

They sat there like that for a long moment, staring into the fire. Then Matt sucked in a deep breath and shook himself once, like a dog trying to shoo away a pesky fly.

"I guess we'd better let them in on it then, huh?" he asked.

"Si," Allie said, nodding. "No time like the present. Kids!" Her sudden yell made Matt jerk in surprise and his ear ring just a little. "Come on in! We need to have a talk!"

The digging sounds stopped, and then came the fast excited patter of running feet. Olivia came running at full tilt around the nearest rubble pile and practically slammed to a seat in front of Allie and Matt. "You're gonna let us learn magic, right!?"

Both parents blinked.

"How—?" Matt began.

"Oh come on it's easy!" Olivia said, talking so fast there was almost no room for punctuation. "Mom gets hurt, Dad realizes there's a bunch of bad guys out there, and then you come back here for a long secret talk while we go out and do some busy work to give you time to figure it out? You're totally talking about letting us learn magic!"

"I hate to say it Dad," Bel said as she and Dinah walked around another rubble pile and came up to the fire, "but she's kinda right. It wasn't exactly high subterfuge. Plus, like, Luc has it now, and if you didn't let the rest of us in on it then I'm pretty sure Liv was gonna explode." The older girl paused and leaned in to peer at her sister. "She might still, actually," she added thoughtfully.

"Oh shut up," Olivia said, glaring. "Like you haven't been thinking about all the cool stuff we could do if we got powers like that. You might even get a boyfriend for once!"

"Hey!" Bel flung a handful of sandy earth at her sister. "I've had plenty of boyfriends. I'm just–I was just taking a break from relationships to concentrate on school…"

"Nerd " Olivia said, sticking out her tongue.

"Dork," Bel replied.

"Women," Lucas muttered under his breath, causing both his sisters and Dinah to round on him with identical incensed expressions.

"Ahem." Matt cleared his throat meaningfully and gave the kids a Look. "Were you all planning on bickering for the rest of the evening, or did you want to talk about weird fantasy magic and what your mother and I have decided about it?"

Like a balloon encountering a pin, the kids flopped instantly onto whatever seat-like object was handy, hands folded in their laps and eyes wide and shining as they looked upon their parents. They were the pictures of excited innocence, every one of them.

And Matt didn't believe it for a second.

The coins appear whenever you accomplish a task, or work for a time at it. He hadn't checked his scroll yet, because he'd been otherwise occupied for a while, but he was fairly certain that if he opened it up now he would see that he had gained at least a coin or two from helping Allie, and from the work he had done earlier in the day.

And if he was earning coins, it was a lead-pipe cinch that the kids were as well. Lucas had snuck one when no one was looking–And this was the first time Matt could ever remember thanking God for the disobedience of his children. One had appeared while Dinah had been sorting the swag from the Dilligaf. More must have appeared to the others as well.

So before he did anything else, he took a breath, let it out, and fixed all of his children with one of his best 'stern' looks.

"Before we get to that," he said, sweeping his gaze left and right over the seated teens. "I need to know up front. How many of you here have not already taken one of the coins that appeared to you today?"

There was a guilty silence as only Dinah raised her hand. Olivia especially squirmed when Matt's gaze settled on her.

"Okay," he said quietly. "I'm disappointed, but I can't say I'm surprised. And in the end it was a good thing that Lucas disobeyed us and took the coin. But from here on out, no more taking chances. Okay? It's clear that this System thing is powerful, and it could just as easily have backfired and hurt Mom more." He punctuated the statement by looking meaningfully at the bracers still on their wrists. Olivia squirmed and looked away. Bel lowered her eyes. Luc just stared back, his choice already having been vindicated.

"So no more sneaking things behind our backs," Matt continued. "No more pretending to obey us and then doing your own thing. Understand?"

There was the expected chorus of "Yes Dad" from his kids, and the "Yes Mr. Albright" from Dinah. He gave it a three count, and then breathed out slow and leaned forward, catching every young eye with his own.

"I need you to understand how serious I'm being right now," he said quietly, and a lot of young eyes went wide at his tone. "These powers are dangerous. They are powerful, yes, and God help me I think we're going to have need of them before long. But they could also cause untold damage and death. Lucas, what would you have done if the magic had hurt your mom instead of healing her? Olivia, what would you have done if Dinah hadn't managed to warp me back down out of the air?"

He held their gazes, and saw the excitement slowly fade to be replaced by unpleasant comprehension.

"This is not some toy that I'm giving you as a gift. Think of it in the exact same way Mom talked to you about the guns. It is dangerous, and if treated without respect, could probably kill any one of us or even all of us in an eyeblink. So I want to hear it again, one more time, from all of you. Promise us that you will always tell us the truth when it comes to this, that you will always make sure we know what you're doing, and that you will treat it like the dangerous tool that it is. Promise us."

This time the chorus was more subdued, more thoughtful, and just a little bit more fearful. He caught Allie's eye, and she nodded to him just perceptibly. Good. If nothing else, he at least had them thinking about it the way they needed to.

"Okay," he took a deep breath and let it out. He hated being the Heavy. But sometimes it was a role you had to play.

"Okay," he said again and collected his thoughts. "We're not going to get into it today. We're all tired, and it's been a rough day. We'll make camp here, get some food, get some rest, and tomorrow we'll see about tackling this whole 'magic' stuff."

"But–" Olivia started to protest, but managed to stop herself. "Fine," she grumbled. "I guess I can wait a little longer."

"Come on Liv," Lucas said, elbowing his sister gently in the ribs, "I'll help you set up your bed."

He watched his children head off and start dragging sleeping bags over to the fire. It wasn't going to be a very comfortable night, considering they'd left all the mattresses and things back at the Dilligaf, but… Well. He couldn't take Alejandra back through the forest, and he wasn't going to split the party to drag some mattresses back here.

Dinner was coldcuts and bottled water. It was the easiest thing he'd been able to grab on his last trip to the Dilligaf. And while no one complained, Matt could see that eating nothing but sandwiches was starting to get old. To say nothing of the fact that the meat itself was also starting to get old. They'd need to figure out something about food sources pretty soon.

So many things they needed to figure out.

"I'll take first watch," Allie said as he scooted closed, munching on roast beef.

"You're up for it?" he asked, glancing at her worriedly.

"I think so." She moved her still-hurt leg, and he saw she had better range of motion than she'd had just an hour ago. "Those magic medicines are really working. I won't be running a marathon, but I can stand a watch I think."

He wanted to argue with her, to tell her to get rest and heal up. But…

"Was this what it was like?" he asked quietly.

She considered for a long moment, staring into the fire.

"In some ways," she finally said, "yes. We often had no choice but to take the best of a series of bad choices. Sometimes we were injured and had to keep moving. Sometimes we were lacking the manpower, but had to guard the objective anyway." She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It is not the same… But it is not different, either."

He reached over and squeezed her hand, and she did not pull away.

"We're going to get through this," he said.

"I know," she replied, squeezing back.

They stayed like that, side by side, watching the fire and their children, until it was time for bed. True to her word, Allie took the first watch.

No one got much sleep that night.

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