When the light under the canopy of trees sheltering us from the rest of the world changed, making the shadows around us grow longer, it was time to go back. We emerged from the forest and crossed the meadow bathed in pink and orange hues of the sunset, lost in fantasising about our future.

I wanted to avoid thinking about it until everything would be sure, well planned and confirmed, but the possibility of leaving Bran and all of Vlad's duties behind, the idea of a quiet life for just the two of us, was too tempting, too difficult to ignore.

"Will we take Katerina with us? And what about Shadow?" I asked, watching the castle grow bigger in front of me as we approached it; its many windows glittering and glowing in the light of the setting sun as if they were on fire.

"What if we let them decide for themselves?" Vlad asked, his voice coming from behind me altered by a smile I could not see but could imagine easily.

He wrapped his arm tighter around my waist, making me lean against his chest, and kissed me on the cheek.

"So we'll attend the wedding and..."

"And wait patiently. Until the autumn. We need to be here when the passage to your world reopens. I told you, all those who came here from the other side left after one year and never came back."

Yes. He did tell me, very vaguely, that he had met a handful of time travellers over the centuries. None of them remained. Even though I didn't know if they had to or simply wanted to return wherever they came from, it wasn't very encouraging.

"But you are different... you belong here. I hope..." he went on.

"I'm staying. Whatever happens, I'm not leaving without you," I promised to both of us as we reached the courtyard and were greeted by a very nervous Junior.

It was obvious that he had been pacing up and down the yard for some time, waiting for our return. His blonde hair was so dishevelled that it looked as if he had just gotten up from bed, making me wonder how many times he ran his hands through it. I had noticed that it was a gesture he shared with his father.

"You two! It was time you came back! You left me all alone the whole day," he whined.

I had to struggle not to burst out laughing at the sight of him, even though I should have felt sorry. I had to bite my lip when my eyes met Vlad's as he helped me off the horse. He seemed to be holding back his laughter as well.

"Rareş has arrived earlier," Junior went on. "He wants to dine with you, Father."

Vlad sighed. "What does he want? He was supposed to come with the rest of them tomorrow."

I could feel his mood shift, becoming glum again, all playfulness gone.

"Well, I don't know, but he is here and insists on seeing you tonight," Junior replied.

Vlad pulled me in an embrace and asked, "Are you coming with me, my love?"

"Sorry, no," I said firmly, kissing him on the cheek before disentangling myself from his arms. "Thanks to your dipping my hair in the lake, I'm perfectly unpresentable."

I pulled all the hair over my left shoulder and sniffed at it. It definitely smelled of the lake and all those invisible creatures living in its water. Just the thought made me shiver.

I giggled at seeing Vlad rolling his eyes at me; a thing he learned from me. I was sorry to leave him, but the day had been far too perfect to have it spoilt by seeing the awful Petru now.

"I'll dine with him and the rest of the Council tomorrow, and I'll see them again at the wedding... Tonight, I'll just have some food with Cook, and then I'll wait for you upstairs. Have fun, you two!" I called from the corridor leading to the kitchens, rushing away before they could stop me.

The castle was a much nicer place since I persuaded Vlad to call the poor Guards off the corridors. I had learned to regard the knights as a sort of living statues, parts of the castle itself, but I never got used to the idea of the Guards walking up and down the corridors day and night. I felt more free and at home here without them. There are still enough of them to make us all feel safe anyway, I thought when I nearly bumped into Stefan, or was it Ionel, on entering the kitchen.

"Has anybody seen my wolf?" I asked as I sat down to eat.

Both Clara and Ioan, sitting across the table, only shook their heads. They were talking about their friends' wedding. I could see how excited they were about the event; the next wedding after this one should be their own. If everything went well with the Council, of course, as first they would have to travel to Hunedoara, Florin's castle, and the current seat of the Vampire Council. To talk to them again, to beg for permission to get married just because Clara was still human.

I could feel my temper rising at the thought that the Council had so much power over everybody here. Luckily, I had already finished eating and could leave. There was no point in thinking about the Council's rules, I couldn't change them. And I needed to find Katerina to ask for a bath.

"Is that waterweed in your hair, my lady?" Katerina's voice startled me as I entered my chamber.

"Yes, that's possible. Some grass probably too," I smiled, seeing her appalled expression.

"You must take a bath. Just sit on the bench, don't approach the bed, it's all clean!" She kept mumbling for a while, then disappeared in search of maids.

Poor old Katerina.

I felt so tired after the bath that I had fallen asleep before Vlad came back.

The following morning, I woke up with a start. Something felt wrong.

The light!

The chamber, typically bathed in a soft glow of sunrise whenever I woke up in the morning, was flooded by a strong early afternoon's shine. And Vlad was next to me, still in bed too.

"What happened?" I asked as my heart started to slow down.

"We overslept," he said simply, smiling at me while pushing a few strands of my hair away from my face.

"But... don't you have to be somewhere doing something?" I asked, puzzled.

"Well, you've been talking about a whole day spent in bed for so long... why not have it today?"

Suddenly, it all made sense. "You talked to him. To your son. And he agreed."

"He said that he would never do it for me, but for you, he will try." Vlad laughed. "But honestly, I think he is quite excited about the prospect of becoming the prince. And as long as he finds the idea appealing, why not leave him to it straight away?" Vlad mused, pulling me in for a kiss.

"Well, that's wonderful, but I think we shouldn't leave him alone too much or he will change his mind..." I said, quite out of breath as I felt his hands slip under my shirt.

"So what shall we do today?" he whispered, ignoring what I had said, his lips caressing my earlobe. "Do we get up, have lunch, and go out before our dinner with the Council, or we just stay here..."

"Everything... I want to do everything," I whispered back, making him laugh.

When I finally got to my dressing room, I chose a bright green silk dress full of tiny jade buttons down the back for our late afternoon walk.

"I love that colour on you," Vlad said, helping me to close the infinity of the small jade beads.

"It looks like the water in our lake." I smiled.

"I thought you didn't like it."

"I didn't like being inside that water, I loved everything else about it, though. I had a great time," I said, remembering the previous day.

"We shall do something like that more often, then," Vlad promised once the buttons were all done, and he spun me around, kissing me briefly, before we left the room.

"Just a little walk, and then we must come back to dinner. It's quite late," Vlad reminded me as we descended the wide staircase.

We walked over the drawbridge spanning above the stream that looked nearly as strong and full of water in the summer as it had been in winter and across the meadow. When we reached the shadows of the closest trees, I finally noticed Shadow.

"Why doesn't he come closer?" I asked, surprised by the wolf's unusual behaviour.

"Look among the trees. Over there," Vlad said, pointing towards the forest.

I had to strain my human eyes to see what he was pointing at, but after a while, I noticed. There was another wolf hiding under the trees, smaller than Shadow, all white and shiny like freshly fallen snow.

"Has he found himself a mate?"

"It looks so. And I don't think he will leave her to keep you company, not for a while, anyway," he said as we sat down in the cool shadows.

Vlad laid his head on my lap and closed his eyes as I played with his hair absentmindedly, watching the wolves inching slowly towards us. Finally, Shadow managed to tempt his mate to come closer, and leaving her at the very edge of the forest came over for a caress.

"Hello, stranger," I said, resting my forehead against his furry head. "You better teach your friend to follow you inside the castle, or I shall miss you."

"I'm not sure she will ever be so at ease with both humans and vampires as he is. Your Shadow is quite special," Vlad said.

"Oh, don't you worry, I'm sure she is a brave girl. To deserve my Shadow, Mist must be pretty special herself."

Suddenly, I was lying on the ground, giggling, my hands held above my head in both of Vlad's. He was pinning me down with his body, his face so close above mine that I could admire, mesmerised, the intricate mosaic of different shades of green concealed in his eyes.

"Mist," he said, as if tasting the sound of the word. "Is that her name?"

"Of course. Why, didn't you know that?" I breathed.

"And will she be coming with us when we move, too?"

"Well, yes, but only if she wants to. And, of course, all of their babies..."

Vlad laughed and brought his lips to my neck. I couldn't stop giggling as his cool breath tickled my sensitive skin there, making me squirm.

"I was talking about serious things and you... " I exclaimed, trying to take a deep breath at the same time. It proved extremely difficult under the circumstances. "You just made me forget everything I wanted to say!"

"Then it couldn't be too important," he said, trying to look serious.

"Maybe it wasn't. But this is important-- I meant to wear this dress to the dinner, and now it's full of weeds," I announced, laughing as he pulled me to my feet.

"It's as green as the grass anyway. No one will notice anything." He smiled and kissed me before we started walking back towards the castle.

"But my hair is not green. They'll all see the grass there unless I brush it out. You should have heard Katerina last night when she saw me... I'm never quite presentable when I'm around you, Your Highness," I said, teasing.

"You have no idea how beautiful you are when you think you look unpresentable, Princess." He smiled at me, making me blush. "If Katerina doesn't agree, then maybe we should send her away for a while, to rest, she might have someone somewhere who will keep her for us for a week or two... " he continued as I turned back towards the forest, watching the two wolves disappear among the thickly grown bushes swaying in the evening breeze.