[edited: 21/03/2018]

"Mother. I was wondering when you would show up. And I see you have even been reunited with your daughter.

"How exciting."

Remy forced her eyes to open at the sound of Ackmard's smug voice, her heart dropping to her stomach as the words sunk in: Hilda was here, and apparently, her daughter too, though Remy did not know she had ever had one. She sat up slowly so as not to draw any attention to herself, her bones feeling hollow and achingly stiff from the damp and cold. The only person who had noticed her movement was Maksim, and he made eye contact with her quickly, his gaze so intense that he did not need a voice to speak to her.

Don't move. Don't try to talk. Stay out of it. This is not your fight.

She could hear it as though he really had said it, and looked back at him in response, trying to tell him to be safe. He looked away without any sort of acknowledgement that he understood.

The only thing she was glad for was that Sarah was not here; this was a different cave to the one she had been tied up in before, and she hoped with every bit of her that her friend was much safer than she was. Now, with the potential of harm and death staring back at her, it was all she had to hold on to.

"Mother doesn't seem too pleased, does she, Ackmard? I thought she would adore our family reunion."

It was only now, as she spoke, that Remy realised there was another woman beside Hilda, one who Remy knew she had never seen before despite the fact that she looked so familiar—it took her a moment to realise that this was because she looked like Hilda, only younger and less stern. That explained why Ackmard had called her Hilda's daughter, she supposed. By the look on Maksim's pale face, he did not know much about this either.

"You certainly did hide that one well, Mother," Maksim snarled, his eyes narrowed pitilessly. Remy had never seen him look so angry, or hurt, or bitter, and she didn't blame him. "Imagine my surprise when our beloved household cat transformed into the sister you never told me about. A bit of warning might have been nice."

Remy frowned at this, feeling so out of the loop that the words no longer made sense to her. What did the cat have to do with any of this?

"I wanted to tell you, Maksim," Hilda said with tear-filled eyes as she forced her arm out of her daughter's grip. "Both of you. But I could not hurt you that way. I could not let you see how cowardly and wrong I was to give up my first child."

"And now here we are," said Ackmard, and his boots splashed towards Remy until he was right beside her. He crouched down so that his hot breath hit her forehead. "With only a mortal girl standing between us. If she will not give us the key, one of you will. Feel free to decide which one of you that will be."

Maksim and Hilda glanced desperately at one another as Remy shivered and cowered as far into the stony wall as she possibly could. Ackmard's hands stroked her hair, her shoulders, her bare arms. His skin was so hot that it felt as though he was leaving licks of fire in his wake.

"Mother," Maksim whispered. For the first time, Remy realised, he was relying on her to do the right thing—perhaps because he did not know what that was himself. "You know that I cannot let them hurt Remy."

Erika watched amusedly, standing with her arms crossed over her chest. She appeared just as tall as Maksim—though her black boots were rather high and thick heeled—and just as lean. The most unsettling thing about her, though, was her complete and utter calmness: where Hilda was strong and fiery, she was eerily emotionless.

"No." Hilda was not talking to Maksim. She was talking to Ackmard, her stance just as strong and confident as her voice. Her heels clicked as she marched closer to him, and Ackmard stood up expectantly.

"No?" He cocked his head to the side.

"No. We will not give you the key."

"Mother!" Maksim shouted as Ackmard's hands begin to flicker with the beginnings of dark magic. The heat caused her cold skin to tingle.

Hilda ignored Maksim's panic, her cat-like eyes remaining focused on Ackmard. "We will not give the key to you, and you will not hurt Remy, for as long as it is around her neck, she is the only person that can give it to you. Don't you see, my son? You do not have the upper hand: you never did. That key is safe and sound, and it will remain so no matter how much you threaten us, because there is nothing you can do to get it. Killing her will only destroy any chance you do  have."

Ackmard sighed and glanced at his sister knowingly. "Very well."

In a flash, Maksim's sister had pulled Maksim into her tight grasp, with one arm wrapped around his neck and the other teeming with black tendrils of smoke that wisped around the two of them, Maksim gagged on the toxic air.

They did not look alike, not really. Maksim's hair was almost black in such dim lighting, but the witch's was as bright as fire. Her eyes were Hilda's, his were the ocean's. Her features were cruel and set, his were soft and sharp. One would not think they were from the same family: darkness and light surely could not come from the same place.

"I did not want it to come to this. We all know how much I adore my baby brother." Ackmard smirked sarcastically. He did not mean a word he said. Perhaps he had wanted this all along. Perhaps everything was going to plan for him. "In fact, I rather wanted Maksim to join us. He has such tremendous potential for dark magic, and I would love nothing more than to have my two siblings by my side as I finally get a hold of the power I so greatly deserve. I am even willing to share."

He paused as though to make sure everyone was listening, even Remy. Slowly, he grabbed her forearm and pulled her up so that she was forced to hold her own weight. She could, but only barely. Her knees wobbled under her and the pain shooting through her battered and bruised body screamed against the movement.

"Never mind, though. Desperate times and all that." He turned towards Remy, his grip around her arm so tight that she could feel his fingernails biting into her flesh like fangs. "It is your decision, little mortal. My mother has proven that she will not give up that key no matter what I threaten her with, but I am sure you have other ideas, do you not? After all, you would not want to endanger the warlock that you love."

He snatched his grip away suddenly and she stumbled, holding herself up by one of the jutting rocks of the cave walls. She could feel her body tingling with a sudden adrenaline as she watched Maksim choke, could feel herself preparing to fight no matter what it would take. If she squinted, she could see a soft light emanating from a small opening in the cave where she had seen Maksim appear from before. If she could just run to it ...

She forced herself to listen to Ackmard, steadying her breath so he would not expect her to escape.

Tears filled her eyes as the stench of something rotting stung her nostrils. "I do have other ideas," she whispered, her voice hoarse and strained. "You're right. I won't let you hurt him."

Maksim looked at her frantically, shaking his head so hard that the smoke cleared around him. "No," he pleaded in a strangled voice. "No, Remy. Don't. You can't."

Her hand found the key, and as she pressed it into her palm, she could feel it burning a hole into her skin as though telling her not to do it; not to give it to him. "Will you shut up," she muttered to Maksim through clenched teeth, "and let me save your life?"

Ackmard was grinning, his posture tense, ready to grab the key when she handed it to him. Erika was watching, too, her green eyes glistening hungrily. Remy felt as though she was getting ready to feed two lions who had been starved for days. They were about to pounce when she began to pull the necklace off agonisingly slowly.

She clutched the chain tightly, letting it dangle between her fingers. "Let him go," she ordered. "Now."

"I do not think so, girl," Erika responded. "Hand over the key to my brother first."

She gulped, caught her breath, readied herself. "Very well." He reached out for the key and that was when she took her opportunity; with a grunt, she swung the necklace as hard as she could towards his face. He stumbled back, flames leaping off his cheek as she ran faster than she ever had to the opening.

Air that seemed both cold and hot at once greeted her as she fell out of the cave and sprinted as far as she could—until she reached the end of the cliff and nearly fell into the black water beneath her. The daylight blinded her as she took in her surroundings and realised where she was: the place she had last dreamt of, with its black lake and cliffs and grey skies, only instead of being safely on the ground, she was on the edge of one of the cliffs. There was nowhere for her to go now, and she could hear their footsteps approaching rapidly behind her.

Ackmard was the first to reach her, but before he could touch her, she held the key over the cliff so that it swung in the open air tauntingly.

He cursed, an angry red mark seared into the flesh on his cheek, just above his dark stubble. Remy felt proud that she had at least hurt him and got this far, even if it meant that now she was in more trouble than she had been before.

"Remy!" Maksim shouted, appearing behind Ackmard. Hilda came next, and then the red-haired witch, whose hands still hissed with the threat of magic. Her eyes weren't green anymore; they were as black as the water beneath her.

Ackmard inched closer and so did Remy so that the heel of her foot teetered over the cliff's edge. "You don't want to do that, little girl," he taunted.

"Don't I?" She raised an eyebrow, her hands shaking so vigorously that the key quivered with them. "I think it's you who doesn't want it."

She let the chain slide further down and watched his expression contort into one of alarm. "What exactly are you going to do with this key? You can't even touch it without spontaneously combusting."

"You'll find out sooner than you think."

In a second he was stood directly in front of her, his merciless features consuming her vision. She was thrust backwards, her feet slipping off the cliff and her hands grabbing onto nothingness. Still, she refused to let go of the key, not even when he tried to pry it from her clenched fist.

She screamed as the world disappeared from under her. Wind whipped through her hair and clothes as she fell. She watched as the cloudy sky moved further and further away, as the black cliff that held Ackmard and Maksim and Hilda did too. She was going to die. She had never been more certain of anything. There was a reason her last nightmare had been of the place she was in now; this would be the place she died.

She thought of her mother, who would never know what had happened to her. She thought of her siblings, who she would never see grow up. She thought of Maksim, who she was sure would blame himself for this for the rest of his immortal life. She wanted to scream until her throat gave out, but she couldn't find it within herself to.

Instead, she simply let herself fall until her body hit the surface of the water. Then, her head was pulled under the thick, suffocating blackness and she forgot how to breathe. She forgot how to feel anything but the terrifying sensation of non-existence—the terrifying sensation of having nothing, of seeing nothing, of being nothing.