Phabel returned to his office, a small window in his schedule allowed for him to attend to his morning duties. After clearing out his pigeon hole he returned to his office, encasing himself into the room. Gone were the days of the darkened room, now the light poured through the windows regularly. It seemed that with Olive in his life, he could see the light. Phabel went through the notes that had been left for him, messages and meetings. The last was a large envelope, he slipped his finger under the flap, disregarding the words on the front. Private and confidential, Professor P Deltrith. He pushed the two sides of the envelope apart, taking a peek into it. Phabel frowned as he pulled what looked like large photos out of the envelope, tossing it onto the desk in front of him. He sank into his chair, stunned at the photos in his hands. Someone had been watching him for a very long time. Someone had connected Olive to him, there were photos of her shopping with Danika and his mother. Photos outside her old apartment the night he drove her home. Whoever took these had gotten closer, taking a photo through the window panel by the front door. The picture showed them kissing. There were photos of his apartment, Olive's old apartment, Lucian's castle. Numerous pictures of Olive and Danika, some of Lucian and Danika. Picture upon picture of his family and his love. Someone was threatening her education and his job. Angrily he tossed the photos onto the desk and leaned back into his chair, thinking about his next move. A note was still tucked into the envelope, Phabel pulled it out.

Professors that play with fire will get burned. Silence is golden, didn't you know? How gold it is can be discussed in person today, without any guards or friends. Be at The Cat and the Cauldron at noon.

He growled as he screwed up the note and tossed it onto the table, watching it skip over the photos. There wasn't many that knew of the true location of the cat and the cauldron, it was a shop that was for witches. In its beginning days, it was a place for witches to buy their supplies, before mid jump was around. Now it was a place of socialisation without actually venturing into the limbo land that was mid jump. But to find the cat and the cauldron, you had to know what to look for. It wasn't a sign on the door that displayed the words nor was it advertised. To find the cat and the cauldron, a dark being would enter a shop called The Sweet Treat, it was a lolly shop. The shop entrance was a blue door that had cracked paint and glass windows. It sat beside a large shop window that had lots of colourful lollies in it. Past the main door was a glass door to the left that led to the shop, to the right was another blue door that said staff only. Phabel knew that beyond that door was a lonely path between the lolly shop and the next shop along. At the end of the path was the door to the cat and the cauldron. To Phabel it seemed stupid, he wondered how it had never been found out after all these years. The amount of people that would walk into the main door and walk through the staff only door, it seemed unrealistic to think that they weren't seen. He figured that there was some kind of spell over it, ensuring that the shop and all who entered remained hidden from the world.

Phabel sighed as he looked at the photos, wondering what he was going to do. Walking into the cat and the cauldron was a trap, he knew it. It was foolish to walk into a meeting place for witches unguarded, at the very least he knew he should be prepared. He was not going to risk Olive's love or her career for some greedy witch. Phabel sat and thought about it, formulating a plan.

He had locked the door to his office and opened the window slightly. It was enough for one little fly to escape the locked room without anyone noticing. He flew all the way to the street where the lolly shop sat, with it's bright and bold colours it could be seen for some distance. Phabel flew around to the alley behind the shops, knowing which windows led to which shops. All he had to do was pass through the window of the kitchen for the cat and the cauldron and he was in there without being seen. It was easy, the window was open, he avoided the fly strips and continued into the main part of the shop. He settled on the edge of the door frame to the kitchen, watching the darkened room. The cook was busy in the kitchen, preparing for what looked like an abysmal lunch rush. There was a disinterested young woman behind the counter, too busy reading a magazine to notice anything. The clock had ticked over, already twelve by the time he settled yet there was only the two in here. Phabel knew these weren't the witches he was looking for. Neither of them would be so stupid to threaten a shifter prince in their workplace and they seemed far too disinterested and busy to be worrying about things like that. Noon would be a lunch rush, or at least, he assumed it would be. It wouldn't make sense to be doing any form of blackmailing when they would have orders piling up around them. It resolved it in his mind that these two were definitely not the ones he was looking for. The clock ticked relentlessly as he waited, yet no one showed. Phabel thought it was odd that no one was coming in, the cook seemed like he was expecting it yet the place was like a ghost town. He knew that something was amiss here.

Phabel flew out of the shop through the open window again and went to the front, flying through the trees to rest on a branch. Everything was like it should be. Humans went about their day, walking down the street too engrossed in their lives to notice anything. The door to the lolly shop was dinging as people passed in and out, never taking a glance at the other door. Phabel couldn't figure it out. As he watched the people moving around, his thoughts flicked back to earlier and his thoughts about this being a trap. Fear gripped him, worrying that Olive might have been the target and dragging him to the cat and the cauldron was nothing more than a ploy to remove him from the university. As he passed under a bridge he turned into a pigeon, gaining faster speed with the change. He swooped through the grounds searching for Olive, desperately hoping that his fears were wrong. As he flew through the trees and over the grassed area, he saw his love with Danika and her guards. They were moving through the crowd that were leaving the building. Phabel stopped and sat on the monument, cooing to catch their attention. Olive was none the wiser but Danika, who had been educated in how to feel the presence of a shifter, darted her eyes to the pigeon. Gently she pushed Olive out from the line of people that were lolling around and watched the pigeon fly off. Phabel rushed back, realising he had left the pictures all over his desk. The door might have been locked but it didn't mean that someone couldn't break in or unlock the door. He also didn't want Olive to see them and start to worry. There was no issue, he didn't care if someone had figured it out. He just wanted to know who it was.

He sat on the ledge of the window to his office, looking through the glass. Sitting on his desk was a blonde woman, her dress was tight and hugged her body showing far too much. Phabel was beginning to panic, knowing that Olive was coming back to his office. He didn't want her to get the wrong impression. How she had gotten into his room he had no clue but she was sitting there waiting patiently. Phabel could hear the knock on the door, he flew to the next window that showed the corridor, cooing at them and pecking his beak against the glass. Danika frowned as she looked over at the bird that was acting like the place was on fire. She walked over to the window and opened it, letting the bird rest on the inside of the sill. Phabe? Yeah, there's a woman in there, I don't know who she is or how she got in but you need to get Olive away now. What's going on Phabel? I don't know but something is seriously wrong. To his horror the door opened and the woman said something to Olive. As the woman sauntered away Olive turned to Danika with tears in her eyes. Danika stop her from running.

'Olive, what did she say to you?'

'She said that he's not here, that he's gone home to rest after an amazing encounter on the desk.'

'Ok that's a lie. Birdie here...' she pointed to the pigeon 'That's Phabe.'

Danika turned back to him.

'Into your office and show her it's you.'

She knew that there were too many people around for him to shift in front of her. Danika took her into the professors office and locked the door. When the bird had entered she closed the window and the shutters. Olive sat on the chair watching as Phabel turned back from the pigeon, stooping to his knees.

'It is a lie my love, do not believe a word she said.'

'What's going on Phabe?'

He turned to see Danika had found the photos and was frowning as she flicked through them.

'At first I thought that someone was trying to trap me by luring me to the cat and the cauldron but when no one showed I feared that Olive was the target.'

'She was.' Danika said dryly.

She passed the photos to Olive, hoping that it would back up his story and she would believe him. Olive looked through the photos with little concern. She was already feeling tired of the charade that was her life now. Barely any time had passed yet she was sick of walking around pretending that she wasn't in love with someone. She had gone through all these years of wishing him back into her life and now that he was, she still had to pretend. Her life was becoming a lie and she hated it.

'It's fine. I don't care if they find out. Let them. I'm not being graded anyway, I won't earn a degree, what difference does it make? It's just their opinion of me, their gossiping.'

****************

Olive had fallen asleep, tired from a stressful day. She still had a lot to do with her studies but the pressure had mounted. Phabel squatted by the lounge and watched her sleeping peacefully, the light from the fire lit her features with a beautiful shine. The necklace pulsated at him, sitting off centre on her chest as she laid on her side. His fingers gently touched the stone, he hoped for another moment. As his fingers made contact with the cold stone, he was thrown back, his mind stinging with the sensations of a vision. Olive remained asleep as the image taunted Phabel, it was an image of something he hoped wasn't true. He blinked hard wishing he could send the image away, praying it was a lie but how could it be? Phabel scrambled to his feet and rushed out of the bedroom to search for Lucian. He found him in the study, or at least he could hear him and Danika giggling like children behind the closed door. Phabel gently knocked on the door, hearing the grumbles of an unhappy man. The door swung open as Lucian narrowed his eyes at Phabel.

'You had better have a good excuse.'

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Tell you what?'

Phabel darted his eyes around the lonely corridor, turning back to Lucian with a whisper.

'About her father.'

'I told you he hit her and practically starved her, there wasn't anything else to tell.'

'I meant the other thing.'

'You are talking in riddles again Phabe, give me a second.'

Lucian closed the door and Phabel waited patiently. A minute later the door was reopened and he was allowed into the room. Danika was sitting on the office chair watching Phabel with a look that told him she wasn't impressed that they had been interrupted.

'Sorry.' he murmured rather embarrassed.

'How about we just get on with this.' Lucian grumbled as he closed the door 'What other thing are you talking about?'

'I had another vision, one that showed me what I did after I left Olive that night.'

'All I saw was you walking through the forest, you found a rock wall and returned to your apartment. To me, it looked like you were on a walk. If I were to find that memory and didn't know of Olive, that would be what I assumed.'

'But which way did I walk? Into town?'

'No, by the river. You were miles from town.'

'What did you see Phabe?'

'The vision...' he gulped as he whispered 'Was that I pushed him off the bridge.'

Lucian sighed as he picked up the phone and called the guards, telling them to do a sweep of the castle and the grounds to search for a witch that was hanging around. He knew that for Phabel to have the vision, the witch would have to chant the spell from within the grounds. Danika left to sit with Olive while Lucian did his best to reassure Phabel it wasn't a true vision. He rummaged through his maps, finding the map of the area where Olive was from. He knew that the vision he had was a lie, he had searched Phabel's mind and seen the vision. The memory of his returning to his apartment via the forest was gone but there was a new addition in his mind, a tiny box. It was locked with a curse, confirming a witch was at the centre of this fiasco. Lucian spread the map over the desk and followed the river along, finding where he thought she had once lived.

'That's the river where it turns, the memories of this river in her mind show her fishing at the turn. Do you remember that?'

Phabel nodded, he had seen the memory of her standing at the turn, catching the fish as they came around the bend.

'This is the only place it turns in this town. She would pass the farms that would be along here and her house was likely to be in this section of the town. It's a lower income area and of course, the memory of the fact that she lived on Maple Lane which you probably didn't know.'

He shook his head, this was all new to him.

'So she knew that her father only went to one pub, the distance was short for him as he had to walk it. He would likely take this route which confirms the story of his death, this bridge.'

Phabel looked at the distance between the bridge, the house and the turn in the river.

'The memory that was still in your mind from that night, you walked along here, past this hill. You found a section of rock large enough to open a door and returned to mid jump.'

He frowned, slowly breaking the cursed box that held the memory. As it returned to him he gasped, remembering the walk.

'I had never understood why I was in the country that night, all I could ever remember was that I walked alongside a river. The moon reflected on the water, it was a full moon.'

His eyes lit up with excitement, remembering the true memory.

'I had spent all these years thinking that you and I had gotten drunk and somehow I had lost you and ended up there. Even though I didn't remember being drunk that was what I assumed.'

'Probably because you had no explanation of it. Do you remember why you were in the country that day?'

Phabel frowned as he tried to remember the parts of that day that he could remember, before the time he had seen Olive.

'Your mother asked to search out a vampire that was causing problems. Once he was located I returned to the rock face.'

His eyes lit up with a beaming smile.

'That was when I happened upon Olive in the water.'

'This vampire, what happened with him?'

'Nothing, I was only asked to find him. Your mother asked it of me a lot rather than calling in the wolves to search. The only thing I was ever asked to do was locate the subject and notify her of the coordinates, after that I don't know what happened.'

Lucian nodded silently as he leaned on the desk, thinking about the predicament as Phabel stared out the window.

'Someone is going to a lot of effort to disrupt my relationship with Olive.'

'Maybe you should be upstairs with her rather than here with me. Go and consummate your love, bind yourselves together and end all issues.'

He couldn't help but smile as Phabel sighed like it was a chore to have sex with his mate, though he did trudge out the door with a smile.