Thank you to MOStar598, PackWolfLegolas, spectra6, Redhunterwoman, crystalily2003, fateclaws, and HawaParsay for commenting and voting on the previous chapter!

Thank you to Cadia18, MaxineBasoc6, hh20082005, dobblewolf, ChristineBailey8, xXxCorrupedAngelxXx, and bastonajasmine for adding this story to their reading lists! 

Legolas was awakened at dawn the next day by his father shaking him. Thranduil's face swam before his hazy eyes, silk swishing and crown atop his head. With a slight groan, Legolas realized it was a meeting day.

"Have you seen my sapphire ring?"

"No," Legolas mumbled, pulling a blanket over his head. His eyes jolted open a moment later as the words sank in and he looked in the direction of his wardrobe.

"Landion told me he saw you looking through the case yesterday."

Thranduil's voice sounded unusually calm. Legolas's heart sank further. He threw off the blanket and exclaimed, "I looked at the jewels but have I ever taken them? I did not take any, ada."

"You are the only one who could have lost the ring," Thranduil said.

"I did not touch it," Legolas cried.

"You are lying to me."

"I am not!"

"Legolas, I do not put locks on the most precious of my jewels because I like to think I can trust you to behave responsibly around them. Where is my ring?"

Hot tears filled Legolas's eyes. "I do not know."

Thranduil's scowl made him shiver. "Did you take it out of the case?"

"Yes," Legolas admitted. "I-I suppose I meant to put it back but I forgot about it."

"Did you leave my chambers with the ring?" Thranduil asked slowly.

Legolas swallowed. "Yes. I-I must have gone to other the places with it. I did not realize—"

Thranduil snapped, "Legolas Greenleaf, have you no regard for my property or the rules I set? Have I not told you time and time again the jewels must stay in my rooms and in their cases? Can you not listen to me for once in your life?"

"I am sorry," Legolas sniffed. "I will look for it, I promise."

"You have already done enough. You will stay in your room, ion nin, until I come for you."

"But—"

Thranduil cut him off. "I have no time to hear anything you have to say and I am sorely disappointed with your actions. You can stay here and think about them."

"Will you come back later?" Legolas asked in a small voice.

Thranduil paused a moment before he put a hand on Legolas's arm. "I am sorry if I snapped but it will be a long morning and I am already late."

Legolas watched his father go. His head drooped as the door closed. Harune brought Legolas his breakfast and gave him an encouraging smile but Legolas felt as if all the sunshine had gone from the room with his lies.

When his meeting finished at noon and the twins put forth the idea of eating lunch out on the balcony over the river, Thranduil accepted. When Elladan and Elrohir were throwing breadcrumbs over the railing to the fish and holding Arwen up so she could do the same, and tea and cookies were plentiful, Thranduil leaned back in his chair to let the sun kiss his face, tired from the meeting.

No one remembered Legolas until it was too late.

Legolas waited until after Galion had taken his lunch tray and no one had any reason to come back to him before he locked his door and opened the bottom draw of his dresser.

With the book open before him, he crawled in a circle on the floor, drawing a diagram reminiscent of spikes and orc teeth. He set the candles in puddles of their own melted wax at four ends of the circle. Over the candle in the center of the circle, he burned a slip of paper inscribed with insidious words. The smoke curled into the air above his fingertips dripping ink.

Legolas put aside his quill and opened the book before him. He took the dagger and slid the curved blade from its sheath. He set the silver ring on the floor, looking at the twinkling sapphire set at its center and remembered Thranduil's earlier disappointment in him. Closing his eyes, he crushed the gem with the handle of the dagger. As the book commanded, one thing of great value in coins and in love had to be added to the ritual before he spilled his lifeblood.

Clenching his teeth, Legolas cut a swift line over his hand, whimpering at the pain. The world became blurry as he repeated the action of his second palm and dropped the knife, sticky with his blood. Gulping to steady the panic growing in him, Legolas watched his crimson blood dripping into pools on the floor. It mixed with the shards of sapphire and doused the dented silver ring divested of its gem.

Legolas looked to the book and read aloud the words on the open page, feeling the darkness in each sound. Tendrils of inky blackness came off the page in the shapes of the letters, swirling around him like a cloak whipped in the wind. His cuts began to ache as the cloud of blackness grew and Legolas squeezed his eyes shut as he chanted, the words beginning to slur on his tired lips. Even with his eyes shut, the world was spinning and he with it, unable to stop—stop—until the earth exploded.

Legolas screamed as the chalk under him burst into flames. Laughter hammered at his ears, drowning out the only sound that could have stopped him; the sound of Thranduil's frantic voice outside the door screaming to him. He clapped his hands to his head, trying to find silence, and felt only his blood seeping from the wounds and slipping down his neck.

The elfling wanted to stop; he did not want to bring his mother back to have her soul reborn through darkness. But the darkness trapped him, smothering him, forcing his lips to keep moving until the last word died into the air and he crashed to the bottom of the black pit he had dug.

When the lock gave way and the door crashed to the floor under the assault of two guards and Thranduil, the elf king found his son sprawled on the floor, tiny breaths forcing themselves from between his bloodless lips while red liquid marked a rune around him.

"Legolas," the elf king breathed. "My sweet, sweet Legolas. What have you done?"

What has Legolas done indeed! This eclipses everything he has done in the past.

Thanks so much for reading! I love hearing from you all and responding to your beautiful comments! 

Next Chapter: Legolas must face the aftermath.