Rissa needed to do something. And she needed to do something now.

        She couldn't risk having Adriana continue hanging out with that Fairling, and she feared that she had made everything worse by forbidding it; Adriana was a teenager and would want to rebel against her just for saying she couldn't do something.

        She had to tell Lisabeth and David about the prophecy.

        Rissa's heart hammered and her vision blurred with guilt and worry. She didn't know how she was possibly going to confess that she had kept this from them all these years, something that could so seriously and quickly impact their daughters.

        She ran along the hallway, ignoring the voice at the back of her head that warned about this being a bad idea, that she would get into trouble. But she ignored the voice. It was the voice that had told her to keep it from them the first time around.

        It was the voice she had to learn to ignore.

***

        Adriana couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She just had to get to her destination and practice. Alone. Without Rissa. Without anyone.

        Her eyes watered and she shivered against the unnatural chill that poked through her coat and rustled the hem of her dress. The weather since the Spring Dance had been strangely cold, especially at nighttime. People were closing their windows and drawing the curtains to protect against the chill that was slowly settling in.

        The meadow just outside of the Forbidden Forest was covered in a light frost that crunched under Adriana's boots. She had stolen the boots from her mother's closet before setting out---Lisabeth, before marrying David, had been a simple farmgirl, not the regal queen she was today. She had kept most of her clothes and shoes from her days as a villager, telling the twins that it was to keep her humble. Not everything was going to fall into her lap like this wealth had from marrying David. She tried to stay close to her roots, in the fields and with the animals that she still loved.

        Adriana just needed the boots so her feet didn't get frostbite.

        "Just a little further." Adriana whispered to herself as she struggled against the growing wind, which seemed to mirror the turmoil inside her own body. She could see the Forbidden Forest up ahead, just a few hundred feet away. She could make it.

        The wind grew stronger and Adriana's thoughts grew harder. She couldn't believe Rissa, how she thought she could control Adriana...the sorceress wasn't her mother, and Adriana didn't take orders from anybody.

        She reached the forest just as the wind began to die down, her thoughts turning away from Rissa and towards the project she had ahead of her. Dawn had somebody coming to the castle to teach her how to control and harness her power. But no one wanted to help Adriana---she was the Dark sister, the one everyone was afraid of.

        There was a circle of trees in the forest that left a small clearing, big enough for two, maybe three, people to sit inside of it, completely shielded from the outside world. It was Adriana's favorite spot in the kingdom, and had been since she was a child. She would come here when she needed to think, when she needed a break from the pressing hardships of the world and the hope her parents had for her future, which were clearly shrinking as the days went on.

        She sat in the center of the clearing and closed her eyes, letting the world around her seep into her and take her away to a world without Dark and Light, without the twin sister that was just another reason everyone hated Adriana. In her happy place, no one was able to touch Adriana...no one had a reason to. She was whole; not half of the twin princesses. She was real.

        Adriana opened her eyes, content with the state that her mind was in. Taking a deep breath, she raised her hands off of her lap and brought them together to form a circle. Centering all of her energy and willpower, Adriana closed her eyes again and willed her power to take form.

        A rustling sounded from near her, and she opened her eyes. A gasp escaped her lips as she saw her hands.

        They were in the same position that they had been in just moments before, but in the middle of them was a bright blue light. It was small, only about the size of a walnut. But as Adriana concentrated more and willed herself to put more into what she was doing, the light grew and grew until it expanded past her hands.

        Adriana tried to pull her hands apart but found that she couldn't. The light threatened to engulf her, and she could feel the heat pulsing from the orb.

        Using all the strength she could muster, Adriana yanked her hands apart from each other, hoping that the orb would stop its growth. As her hands separated, the light split and shot into the sky, breaking into tiny pieces in such a number that they couldn't be counted. The pieces hung above Adriana's head and lit up the clearing, giving the forest a warm glow.

        Adriana laid down on her back and looked up at the pieces of her energy that hung all around her.

        I made this, she thought, feeling the first true joy that she had felt in a long time, I made something beautiful.

***

        "Okay Dawn, here we go." Marcus was not exactly who Dawn had had in mind when she found out she was going to be given guidance on how to use her power wisely. Marcus was an old man in his late 90s who was skilled in the art of sorcery, like Rissa. But he would never consider himself to be a sorcerer, for the word was too strong and blunt for him. He preferred the term "magic employer", which Dawn frequently forgot to call him, and was frequently chastised.

        "One...two...three." he let a bundle of sticks in the air and shouted, "GO!"

        Dawn mustered up all her energy and pointed her fingers at the sticks. Light the color of gold shot out of her fingertips and lit the sticks on fire. They tumbled down to the grass of the meadow and laid there limply, the fire not enough to catch on.

        "Not bad." Marcus conceded. 

        "Pardon," Dawn said sweetly, trying to mask her confusion and slight annoyance, "But how will setting sticks on fire help me to know how to use my power for good?"

        Adriana had come into Dawn's room at 4:00 that morning, her face practically glowing. She had told her of how she had created light with her power and had laid under the stars for hours just enjoying the scene and her own thoughts. Dawn wished she could do that. Instead she was setting sticks on fire that didn't catch.

        "It helps you get used to your power harmlessly before we try to do big things." Marcus explained patiently. Dawn nodded before going again.

        Sometimes, she thought as she set fire to the sticks over and over again without conviction, I wish I could be like Adriana.

***

        "Where's the king and queen?" Rissa ran through the castle frantically, trying to ignore her head. She had gone to sleep the night before restless, knowing she was going to tell her brother and sister-in-law about the prophecy. But she hadn't been able to find them...truth be told, she hadn't tried as hard as she could have. But now she knew she needed to confess. Nothing would stand in her way.

        "Have you seen David and Lisabeth?" she asked the servants she passed them. Each would shake their heads quickly while avoiding the sorceress's eyes, and Rissa cursed herself for having such controversial powers.

        Finally she decided to try their bedroom. They weren't often found there during the day, but at this point, it was worth a try. Rissa was sick of playing hide-and-seek.

        She knocked on the door before opening it anyways. Directly inside the bedroom was the foyer of the room, since the bedchambers was the grandest room of the castle. As Rissa made her way towards the door that would take her to the actual bedroom, that very door opened, revealing Jasmine, who then closed it quickly. Rissa grabbed the nurse's arm as she tried to scurry past.

        "Where's Lisabeth and David?" she asked through gritted teeth.

        Jasmine shook her head sadly.

        "You haven't heard?"

        Rissa narrowed her eyes.

        "What?"

        Jasmine's eyes were filling with tears and Rissa realized that this might actually be serious.

        "It's Lisabeth." the nurse whispered tearfully, "She's...she's..."

        "She's what? Spit it out, woman!" Rissa cried.

        "She's dying."

---

A/N: I hope you guys are enjoying the story and not getting bored :) I told you drama was coming up...sad drama. Don't forget to vote, comment, and watch for the next update!! Thank you guys so much for getting me to so many reads (almost 400!!!) and votes within such a short time!

I'm trying to write as much as I can before school starts in 2 weeks. After that, uploads will probably be more spaced out :/

-Katherine