People go
but how they left always stays.
-Rupi kaur

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- Victorine -

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Warmth enveloped me as I stepped up to the cell bars. It was brighter than in the other cells. That was because small flames were blazing there.

Nicolas' body was leaning with his back against a wall. His gaze was directed upward, his eyes closed. The burning hands lay motionless beside him.

I recognized moist, red liquid on his temple. The drops had run down his cheek to under his chin.

My heart and my entire chest tightened. The burning hands had to mean he was alive. But he looked so motionless. He looked dead.

"King Nicolas," I whispered, so softly I could barely hear my own voice.

The king slowly opened his eyes. His gaze was still fixed on the ceiling.

"King Nicolas," I whispered again.

That's when he turned his head to look at me. For a few seconds he stared at me without reaction, as if wondering if he was suffering from hallucinations. The fire from his palms went out. With one hand he went to the injury of his head.

My heart was pounding up to my throat. I looked around slowly to my left and right, but there was no one to be seen. Not yet.

"Highness Victorine?", asked Nicolas quietly and tonelessly, as if he still thought I was a mirage.

Yes, damn it, of course it was me.

"Where are the keys?", I whispered, growing increasingly nervous. I tried to speak very softly. But I didn't know how good a witch's hearing was. If there were any on the upper floor, I hoped we had gone unnoticed.

The king got up silently and dragged his body to me. Then he lowered himself to the floor in front of me. I also went down on my knees and looked him in the face. The green eyes looked at me. He was so close to me that I could feel his hot breath on my face.

"What are you doing here?", Nicolas brought out, slowly realizing that I was really sitting in front of him.

"Freeing you. What do I have to do?", I was really starting to need to know now. I had no idea how much time we had left.

Nicolas remained silent. He still looked me motionless in the eyes.

"King Nicolas," I urged in an insistent whisper, clutching one of the iron bars with my hand.

Then the king seemed to awaken from his trance. He backed away from me a small distance. "You must leave, at once," he urged.

"I'm not leaving you behind," I objected firmly.

"Damn it, I'm dead serious. Get out before it's too late." His voice gained in anger. That was the voice as it sounded familiar. "Lead the others on. Kill Cephas."

"Not without you," I hissed. What was so hard to understand about that? I wasn't here because I enjoyed it. Wasn't it clear that I wouldn't leave without him?

"Highness Victorine, leave now. That is an order." The green in his eyes seemed so angry. Like venom that shot forth, trying to force me to flee.

Charged with rage, I clutched the bars so that my fingers ached. "You may be a king, but you are not my king. You do not have the power to command me. So now I ask one last time, where are the keys?"

For a few precious seconds he just stared at me. "There are no keys," he then spoke. "You cannot free me."

My eyes searched the entire grate for the first time. I did not recognize any lock. The horror which was happening inside me had to be in my eyes as well, as I looked at Nicolas again.

"They hold me captive by their magic," Nicolas continued.

"Then I will kill them," I asserted, although somewhere deep inside I knew that this endeavor was futile. But I had to push that thought aside if I wanted to have even the slightest chance of freeing him.

Behind me, someone laughed.

In seconds I had shot up and drawn my sword. Before the pool ended my blade shot forward and penetrated deep into an abdomen.

Completely black eyes looked into mine. The next thing I saw were black, dancing dots in my field of vision. My back was aching. I realized I had been slammed against one of the stone walls. My helmet fell to the floor with a loud, clattering echo.

My feet no longer touched the ground and my brain realized that they weren't dots that were in my vision. They were pairs of eyes. In front of me stood dozens of witches while a magical force pushed me against the wall, suspended in mid-air.

The witches were wrapped in dark cloaks. Their black eyes were all fixed on me. Their skin was so white it looked like the skin of a corpse and dark hair under their raised hoods, yet each of them looked different somehow.

Moreover, even though I had just injured one of them, they all looked amused. That was what scared me the most.

"Who do we have here?" one of the witches asked in a calm voice that was eerie to me. She took a few steps closer to me. Then I realized that something was unusual with her skin. It looked burned and not fully healed. Scarred. Uneven. Her eyes radiated absolutely nothing. Nothing I could make out, anyway.

Automatically, I tried to penetrate her mind. But I couldn't get through that blackness, no matter how hard I tried. I pushed myself further and further into it. Then I realized that I could penetrate after all. I had already done so. But I was blind. I saw nothing but deepest darkness.

Startled, I fled from her mind and gasped for air. Although I saw only the witches before me, I was still glad to see anything at all again.

"Interesting," she remarked. She knew what I had been trying to do.

My body was still pressed against the wall. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't move. "Why are you holding him captive?", I then brought out.

"Because he will still be of use to us," the witch with the burnt face answered. "You won't be of any use to us. Burn her at the stake."

I fell back to the ground, landing on my hands and knees. My sword hit the stone floor and slid away. They had long since taken my crossbow from me. "No, wait!", I shouted. But that didn't stop the numerous scrawny fingers from grabbing me and pulling me back to my feet.

"Victorine!" roared Nicolas. He had straightened up, shaking and tearing at the bars in front of him with all his strength and burning hands. I noticed that, as if by magic, not a single spark of fire made it out of the cell.

I was dragged forward.

Desperately, I braced my feet against the ground, so they began to pull me along by my hair as well. Tears welled up in my eyes. "Wait!", I groaned out in hellish pain. "I am of use to you! I am of use to you!", I screamed.

The hands let go of me in an instant. I sought my balance and took two steps away from the witches in front of me.

"And how?" one of them asked with her head tilted as if she didn't believe a word I said.

My thoughts shot to Cephas' plan. To how close we were to his goal. Where we were located. Who was standing in front of me.

"I know what you're up to," I then blurted out. My brain was still piecing together all the facts as I continued to speak. "You're going to hand Nicolas over to Cephas."

The witches' eyes seemed to darken even more, if that was even possible. I looked at them one by one and noticed that many of them bore burns and injuries on their bodies, which stood out starkly against their otherwise flawless, snow-white skin.

"How ever you know this, what good is your knowledge to us?" asked the face burned witch, whom I now assumed to be the leader.

My body shook as my mind raced. "Because," I finally said slowly. "Because I know Cephas' plan."

Although the beings before me tried to keep their stony expressions, I recognized a change in their faces. The leader took a step toward me so that I would only have to reach out and feel her skin. "Really?"

I hesitated. Of course I hesitated. I had kept this knowledge so secret that I had not even allowed myself to think about it. This knowledge was my only chance at freeing my sister. The only thing that could get me to Tenebris.

"What is his plan?"

I remained wordless. It made no difference what I would decide. Either I died here on the spot and could not save Crescentia. Or I spoke out his plan and still would not be able to save her because Nicolas would not need me anymore.

"Highness Victorine," Nicolas called my attention. "You must tell them."

Everything in me resisted. I was so afraid for my sister. From the beginning, I had stuck to my plan. Not to tell Nicolas about Cephas' plan. To invade Tenebris with him. Of course, the plan had not been perfectly planned or thought out. But I had never had any other choice.

"You will leave me behind," I whispered. "You won't need me then, will you?" Then I would never see my little sister again.

No one dared to speak. It was completely silent in the dungeon. In front of me stood a dozen witches who wanted to burn me. Nevertheless, the world around me diminished and all I saw was Nicolas.

"I won't," he contradicted.

But how could I believe him?

"I swear it," he continued to speak.

But still I remained silent.

Then he closed his eyes. "Read my mind. Do it."

Surprised, I looked at him and turned to face him. With both hands he held on tightly. He looked focused, like he was preparing. Doing something inside himself.

When he opened his eyes again, I was sucked into his mind.

Never before had someone voluntarily released his mind to me so completely. I could hardly believe that it was the same spirit that I could hardly penetrate in the beginning. All protective walls were torn down. All paths were open to me. All knowledge.

My ability seemed to have to orient itself first in the chaos. I trusted my instincts as I tried to find my way.

Then I was hurled into a cold room. Into a throne room.

I saw the world through Nicolas' eyes. And that world, for the moment, consisted only of Cephas sitting in front of him in a throne. I knew that it was not his own throne.

Nicolas found it difficult to breathe. His hands were tightly bound behind his back. Somewhere he had a wound from which blood was pouring. It would not be long before he died from blood loss.

On his left side knelt his mother.

On his right stood his father.

Cephas stood up. His ice-cold eyes regarded Nicolas' father, king of Sanguis.

"Get on your knees," he commanded, stopping in front of the descending steps. He stood before the throne, on the rise. His immense height dared to soar above them all.

"No," objected the father.

The family was surrounded by three dozen soldiers who had placed themselves at the edges of the hall. But no one moved even a bit to bring the king to his knees.

"You will kneel before me," Cephas prophesied. "Your son does not have much time left."

Nicolas felt his body's strength slowly leaving him.

But the king remained steadfast.

Almost bored, Cephas stepped down the stairs and walked toward the queen. He dragged her upstairs.

"No!", Nicolas brought out, which almost cost him his last strength.

The queen had a countenance of stone as she looked Cephas in the face. Also, when he pressed his lips to hers. Also when his hands touched her body. Then he took a swing. His palm landed slapping on her cheek. Her head was thrown to the side by the force. Cephas laughed.

"Father, kneel!" cried Nicolas.

"What good meat," Cephas remarked during his amusement. His hand jerked the queen's dress upward, then went to her abdomen.

The rage of Nicolas seemed to make his body explode at any moment. Despite his injury, he screamed and yelled, trying with all his might to break the bonds on his hands.

Cephas stopped. But only to grab the queen by the shoulders and bring her down to her knees. "You see?" he asked with a smile. "Even your wife kneels before me."

I didn't know what the King of Sanguis was doing at that moment because Nicolas could only look at the horror before his eyes.

Cephas' left hand held the queen's beautiful, stone face. With his right hand he went to his waistband. "And she'll love it."

Nicolas' father fell to his knees.

Nicolas looked at his father, who had lowered his head and was resting his hands on the floor. For the first time in his life, he realized that his father was not heartless after all.

Cephas pushed the queen away from him and strode toward the king. For some time he stood before him and contemplated him.

Nicolas was barely able to keep his head elevated. Nevertheless, his eyes clung to what was happening.

Without warning, Cephas drew his sword. Before Nicolas could even comprehend it, it raced down on his father and severed his head.

Nicolas began to have difficulty breathing. He seemed to suffocate at any moment because he could no longer breathe. A muffled sound filled his ears. Only in the very background he heard his mother screaming.

As if all life had left Nicolas, his body hit the ground. Lying there on his back, he stared at the ceiling. He felt warm, moist liquid against him. He was lying in his father's blood. He would die in his father's blood.

His sense of touch left his body first. Every part of his body went numb.

His mother's screaming stopped. I wondered if his sense of hearing had also ended. But then I heard painful sounding gasps. After that nothing more.

An eternity passed.

"Holy King Cephas, we must leave. Enemy reinforcements will arrive any moment," Nicolas heard somewhere in the distance.

Then footsteps of dozens of people.

"The king's son is still alive," someone remarked.

Cephas's face appeared in Nicolas's vision, blending with the blackness that also seemed to want to replace his sense of sight.

"He will die most likely. But well, let God decide about him," Cephas announced. "If he wants to give me another ant as an arch-enemy, he is welcome to do so."

Then his face tilted very close to his. "Perhaps he can also announce to the world that there shall be no other king but me."

And so all present left the throne room. Nicolas lay alone on the floor among the bodies of his parents.

Then blackness invaded his field of vision.

I tore myself away and fled from Nicolas' mind. My real vision was flooded with tears. Searching for support, I reached around and held onto two witches. I struggled to catch my breath.

"Don't ever, ever try to get inside my head again," he warned me softly. "It's too dark for you in there."

My whole body shook and trembled. Violently, it tried to remove the new knowledge from me. Jerks shook my body as I struggled to stay on my feet.

I turned back to Nicolas. The green instantly pulled me back into his mind.

A part of me resisted spending another moment in that dark, terrible soul. But my ability did not stop there. It searched for answers.

This time I found myself in a room that was familiar. It was the royal meeting room of Spero. Everything looked the same as I knew it.

The white crests on the walls, the massive wooden table, the wide windows.

I found it downright amazing that Nicolas had been to the kingdom of Spero.

And even more amazing that he had been in front of my parents.