The night breeze nipped at Michael's cheeks as he glared at the gold door in front of him. The way the intricate white symbols that riddled the door gleamed in the moonlight made him want to reach out and touch it, but he knew better than to give in to temptation, and only pushed his hands deeper into his pockets.

He had not come there to give in to his curiosity, but to draw Ellette out. Knowing what he knew now, he suspected why it had revealed itself to him, but it was a theory he could only conclude as true if she would finally be honest with him.

A tingle of warmth suddenly ignited in his chest, and seconds later, footsteps crunched in the snow from behind. He turned his back to the door, and his heart began to race when he saw Ellette emerge from the darkness surrounding the trees.

Before he thought it was his heightened senses that were alerting him of her presence, and although that may have partly been true, he was coming to realize it was her light within him that had been reaching out towards its owner and other half.

When she finally stood before him, face framed by a few loose curly hair strands that had escaped the side braid peeking out from underneath her black hooded cloak, he balled his hands into fists to prevent himself from acting upon the urge to warm her rose tinged cheeks. And before he fell prey to her large brown eyes staring up at him, he turned his back to her and faced the door.

"This is the second time the door has revealed itself to me. Why is that?"

She stood next to him. "It recognizes your blood as the same blood that helped create it."

He sighed.

She could not tell a lie, but she certainly could pick which truths to tell and which to keep. And after everything they had been through and everything she had already kept from him, she was still choosing to be caged by her silence rather than allow the truth to set her free.

"Because my mother's blood runs through my veins? Is that the only reason?" He turned his head and looked down at her.

She faced him and looked up at him, her eyes flickering between both of his.

This was her opportunity, and he was hopeful she would take it and set herself free until she lowered her gaze to the snowy ground.

Another heavy sigh escaped him before he tightened his fists and stepped towards her. "I suppose it has nothing to do with it recognizing your light inside of me?"

She looked up at him with wide eyes, and, in the span of seconds, he recognized her panic first, then fear, and, lastly, acceptance.

"My mother finally told me. Does it upset you that she went against your wishes?"

She did not answer.

"Why did you not tell me? Why did you not take it back? Why did you force me to live with the one thing that could have saved you? Why..." his breath hitched in his throat, "little fairy, do you never choose yourself? There is nearly nothing left of you to give, so why do you let the world continue to take?"

Still, no answer.

"I came here tonight to give back what belongs to you."

She shook her head, but still would not look at him. "Extracting it could kill you."

"And save you."

She turned her back to him. "You cannot force me to take it back!"

He shoved his right hand into his pocket and closed it around the hilt of the dagger. "And you cannot force me to keep it." He pulled it out, took off its sheath and tossed it to the ground before staring down at its blade. "Zanna tasked me to find a dark object as one of the requirements. Who knew the one I found would have so many uses?"

He looked up at her. "Your light needs a host, right? Your staff was its host, and when I touched it after it broke, it jumped into me." He lifted the dagger to his neck. "Will you take it if I cut it out right here and now?"

Like expected, his question forced Ellette to turn back around and face him. He watched her eyes settle upon the dagger, then trail along its blade and stop where it had been pressed against his neck. And the moment realization struck her, she glared up at him.

"No..." She pushed herself forward and reached out for the dagger, but he dodged her attempt by pulling it from his neck and lifting it out of her reach.

She tried again, and again, and again, each attempt more forceful. More desperate. Soon, the little energy she had ran out, ceasing her attempts and forcing her to hang her head low. It was not until she pressed her forehead against his chest that he lowered his arm, but his tight grip on the dagger remained.

"Please...please, do not do this, Michael."

He placed his free hand at the back of her head. "You refuse to let me die, yet want me to watch you perish. How is that fair, little fairy? Why is it so wrong for me to want you to live?"

She slid her arms around his waist, too weak to even hold on tightly, but far too determined not to let him go. "Because the cost of saving me is a life."

He turned his head towards the door.

Her freedom was feet away, and her survival inside of the body she was embracing. If she refused to be selfish and take them, then that left him with no other choice but to deliver them both to her.

And if his life was the cost of saving hers, so be it.

"Yes, my life." He looked down at her. "Mine to do with as I please, Ellette."

She pulled her head away and peered up at him, eyes full of tears. "You are not aware?"

"Aware of what?"

"Fae blood, wolf blood, and a dark object are the three requirements to open the door, but closing it requires..." she looked down, "a death. That night, it was supposed to be my death, but..."

He thought about the fourth requirement Zanna never did get around to telling him, and quickly realized why she had kept it from him. "My brother's death closed the door."

His hand dropped from her head, as did her embrace.

"Even before he bit me, I was determined to die to save the Fae. But you chose to save me."

He remembered her begging him that night to leave her and go. His refusal to let her die led to his mother putting Gabriel down to save him, but was there more to her choice all along?

"Did my mother know? Did she know what killing Gabriel would do?"

She nodded, and he felt his heart break a little. For her. For his mother.

"And is that why you refuse to take your light? To repay her? A life for a life?" He clenched his jaw.

She casted her gaze to the ground. "Because reuniting with it will not make me whole. Because dying would ensure the door can never be opened again, and the Fae, who will not even remember me if I crossed over, will be safe. Because I love you. Too much. Too hard. So much so that instead of letting you render the dark object useless to open the door by forcing my light inside of it, I still, I always and will always choose you. Because your life is as important to me as my people's, and I do not wish to gamble with it." She looked up at him, her face wet with tears. "Because if I die, they will be okay and their world will continue to spin, but if you die..."

Michael closed the space between them before she could finish and held her in his arms. As her body shook with her sobs, he could no longer hold back his tears and cried with her.

For her pain, her fears, her worries. For all she had lost. For her cruel and unlucky fate of meeting him.

But even if she did not have a family to go back to, at least she would be alive and with her people. And stronger than his sadness over what she would be without was his determination to not allow history to repeat itself. She was not going to die for or because of him, like Kora died for Raphael.

"I am sorry that you had to cross paths with me. Right now, my biggest wish is that you never saved me that night. But we cannot undo the past, only try and make a better future. If using the dagger as a host jeopardizes the plan of getting you home, then, for tonight, you win.

"But listen to me carefully, Ellette." He pulled away only to cup her face in his hands and force her to look up at him. "Your sacrifices end here. In this moment. You are going to the Fae world, and you are taking your light with you. Whether you take it back, or I cut it out myself and hand it to you, you are not crossing over without it. And if it kills me, then let it be my death that shuts the door forever."

She shook her head, causing fresh tears to spill down her face.

"You made a promise to me, remember? A promise to try and live. You will not let my death deter you. You will not shed a tear," he wiped away hers as they continued to fall, "you will walk towards the door, and you will not look back, only ahead. You will live, little fairy. If I am to die for you, then you must live for me. At all costs, you will live. Okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

* * *

Michael stared out at the Woodlands from his window. Night had fallen hours ago, but he could not sleep soundly that night.

It had only been a day since he had seen Ellette, but staying away from her was becoming difficult. If he could, he would have stayed in the cabin with her until the end, but his absence—even if only for a few days—would not go unnoticed.

So, all he could do was watch from afar. And if they had to spend most of the little time they had left apart, he could not justify wasting it with sleep, but using every second being entirely consumed with her.

Thinking of her. Watching over her. Loving her.

He glanced up at the sky. To the untrained eye, the moon perched directly above the Woodlands would appear as if it was full, but would not truly be for three more nights.

Because of his nature, he could not suppress his yearning to release his wolf on its one night of freedom, but shifting would only complicate things. They had first met when he was in wolf form, and though it would be full circle for them to part in the same way, he wanted it to be his eyes that looked upon her for a final time, and for her body to still feel the warmth of his embrace as she crossed over. For one final time, Michael wanted her to hear him tell her he loved her.

But that could only happen if Zanna could—

"Michael," a soft voice came from behind.

He whirled around, stunned to see a cloaked Zanna standing in his chambers next to his bed. His heart was pounding as he narrowed his eyes on the witch.

Had he just conjured her?

"You are not about to tell me you have suddenly developed the ability to appear whenever someone thinksof you, are you?"

He wished he could say he was joking, but he learned a long time ago to never put anything past a witch. "If so, why have you only appeared now? I have been trying to reach you for days, Zanna. Where have you been? Moonrise is in three nights—"

"I am aware, Michael." She rushed over and stood next to him, then practically pressed her face against the window pane as she stared out at Luna knows what.

"And do you know what I am aware of? You keeping not one, but two highly important things from me."

She drew his curtains, and were it not for his lit fireplace, his chambers would have been in complete darkness. When she turned to walk away, he grabbed onto her arm. He waited for her eyes to meet his, but she stubbornly avoided them, choosing to instead look at the floor.

It gave him an opportunity to really look at her. A few black strands of hair peeked out of the sides of her hood, and her black cloak was wrinkled. Standing before him was not the prim and proper witch he was accustomed to seeing.

"Zanna, look at me."

She did not move.

He let go of her arm and lifted his hand to her cold cheek. "Look at me," he coaxed. When she slowly turned her head and her dark brown eyes looked into his, fear stared back at him.

"What is it?"

"They took my mother."

She pulled away from him and walked to the middle of the room, her back turned to him.

"Who has taken her?"

"Aria. She sent her cohorts to our coven days ago, and had her brought in under the suspicion of conspiracy."

Had Aria learned of Moreena's involvement in helping the Fae escape? If so, how long until she found out about his mother's involvement?

Michael moved to the centre of the room towards her and grabbed hold of her arm to turn her around. "Why now?"

"Now? It has been happening since the almost war. There are still many witches who have either not returned, or returned after months of...interrogation."

The disgust in her tone when she uttered the last word sent a shiver down Michael's spine. He knew exactly what type of interrogations Aria must have conducted as he still remembered Gabriel's blood curdling screams while being 'interrogated' by the witch.

"Why is Aria taking things this far? Does the hatred for the Fae truly run so deep? Does it have anything to do with why she wants the Woodlands so badly?"

"My mother discovered 'tis not the Woodlands she wants, but the Fae magic inside of it."

Michael narrowed his eyes at her. "But they are gone. Should their magic not be gone, too?"

If that were true, was that how Ellette  had survived this long without half her light nor her people?

"From every blade of grass, every grain of soil, and every leaf on every tree carries traces of Fae light. They have inhabited the Woodlands for centuries, so naturally it would be full of their magic. My mother believes Aria wishes to syphon it before it inevitably fades away, and her digging must have garnered Aria's attention, hence why she was summoned."

Michael realized what this meant and stared intently at Zanna. "She always planned on taking the Woodlands."

She nodded and slid the hood of her cloak off her head. "Asking the Wolves was only a courtesy."

Michael balled his fists at his sides.

"I came to ask your mother for help."

"Aria severed all ties with the Wolves when we denied her request. My mother will have no power nor say. Besides, do you really think it smart for the Alpha female to get involved? From the sound of it, the best thing she can do is lay low now more than ever before her involvement is discovered."

Behind her, the fire suddenly began to rage, and its cackling filled the room as Zanna stared at him with a look he had not seen before.

She had every right to be upset, but getting his mother involved was out of the question. They had a plan they absolutely had to stick to.

"We have three more nights. Surely, we can hold her off until after Moonrise."

"Are you hearing me, Michael? My mother has been taken for helping the Fae—"

"I hear you, Zanna, and I am sorry Moreena was taken but that is not Ellette's fault. Getting her out is even more vital if what Aria plans to do is true. She cannot discover Ellette."

He hated to plead his case as a choice between her mother and Ellette, but he had to.

"Moreena will be fine, and I am sure she would not want you to give up now when we are so close. When you promised to help," he reminded.

Her eyes narrowed on him and her mouth parted as if to speak, but she only released a deep sigh before looking away and sliding the hood of her cloak back on her head.

"You do not have to go back. You can stay here, Zanna."

She shook her head. "As you stated, my mother would want me to continue with the plan."

There was a hint of anger in her otherwise monotone voice, and he was absolutely certain he had been both the cause and the one it was directed at.

"Zanna, I did not mean—"

"To make me choose between my mother and your fairy? Yes, you did."

"'Tis our fault she is stuck here. All I am asking is for you to remember our promise to make it right. You, by opening the door, and me, by closing it."

As expected, she looked back at him with wide eyes, but said nothing. She knew that he knew and what he was insinuating.

"Do not be rash, Michael. Although a literal death is the easiest and surest way to close the door, death comes in many forms. 'Tis why I did not tell you."

"I know half her light is inside of me, and she will not leave this world without it." He hoped his meaning was clear. "So, if it comes down to it, use me to close it."

Zanna moved to him and grabbed hold of his arms. "It will not come to that."

"But if it does, Zanna, do it. Promise me."

She only shook her head before looking down. "Martyrs, the both you."

A smile tugged at his lips but disappeared when she lifted her head and looked back up at him.

"Then I must get back and finish what my mother and the others started. But if I am to do this alone, I will not be powerful enough to hold off the full moon to prevent you from shifting. So, I suggest you use the next three days to figure that out on your own."

He nodded, then pulled out the dagger from the back waistband of his trousers and offered it to her. "The third requirement."

She stared down at it but did not take it. "Keep it and bring it to the Woodlands. I cannot run the risk of it being discovered or confiscated. Besides, it may be a dark object, but 'tis also still a weapon and one you may need. If Aria truly plans to syphon the Woodlands for Fae light, we may not be the only ones there on Moonrise."