CAMILLE

I let out a sharp breath as my eyes open, and begin gasping for air.

Holding my hands out, I turn my wrist, seeing my palms before moving my hands up my body. I can feel my body, I can feel my skin but that's not all, I feel alive, I feel like myself again. I am me, I am myself. I can't believe I'm in control.

This is all I've ever wanted since she stole my body. And I'm back. I am back. I'm–

The sound of people screaming in agony interrupts my thoughts, bringing my attention to my surroundings, where I am.

The familiar fountain at the middle of The Vale comes to view. Oh great! I'm in The Vale not Di Hipsodat but that's not all. The buildings are on fire: the school, the dorms, they are all up in flames and some parts of the buildings are crumblies with some people still inside, I can hear their screams.

"What is going on?" There's no one around me to ask, the people around the fire are running for their lives while some are helping getting people, other casting spells to stop the fire from spreading or undoing it, I don't know.

I have to help. I need to help.

I look down at my hands, I don't know how long I've been dead or unconscious but I still remember some magic spell to stop this. I can do this.

I clap my hands together before rubbing them against each other slowly as I cast the spell, a backward one to reverse whatever's causing this. "Nruter ot eht yaw uoy erew. Nruter ot eht yaw uoy erew." I toss in a more powerful spell to back the backwards because it doesn't seem enough. "Lafa dorh run blede das gha glasqus yunkin di alla noya. Nruter ot eht yaw uoy erew. Nruter ot eht yaw uoy erew! Nruter! Ot! Eht! Yaw! You! Erew!" Screaming the last part, I draw in breath and fall down to the ground, my body collide with gravel ground.

Panting when I hear voices around me. It's been a while since I've done magic and boy did it take a lot from me. "Guys, over here." Unfamiliar voices speaks from above me.

"It's her!"

"She's the one who started the fire."

"Cami! Cami! It's Cami," I feel pair of hands touching me, grabbing me from the ground but I'm too weak to even open my eyes or move. "Cami, it's me Alicia, are you okay?"

I hum as she moves me placing my head against her shoulder. "Hmm... What hap...happen... What happened?" I manage to ask.

I open my eyes and see the fire is gone, the smell of exhaust and burnt stuff is all gone. "Is everything back to normal?"

She nods. "Yes! You did, you put everything back to normal. How are you? Where have you been? They said you died and you came back and started setting everything on fire. What's going on?"

I started the fire?

I didn't. I was–

The doubt clears from my face as realization sets in. She did this. She fucking did this. What–

"Clear out!" An unfamiliar deep voice commands from near us. "Everybody stand down and walk away from the suspect."

Alicia places her hand under my armpits to help me up, my vision is still blurry but I can still make out the figures approaching me. They don't look like our professors. They look like law enforcement.

"Cami Stark. I'm Agent Smith from SBI." He flashes me something that I'm assuming is his badge. "You're coming with us."

They don't even give me the chance to explain or ask what's going on. One of them pulls me from Alicia and before I know what's happening, they're grabbing my hands and slapping cuffs on them behind me.

Are they arresting me right now?

SIX MONTH EARLIER

My eyes flutter open connecting with an unfamiliar ceiling. I close my eyes and shift on the bed, only it isn't a bed I'm laying on, it's something hard like a cemented floor and surprising I don't feel sore. I'm not sure how long I've been laying here and–

Actually I don't remember coming here at all.

I snap my eyes open staring at the ceiling again. I have seen this particular carvings before at my grandmother's palace.

What?

I get up to a sitting position and look around the place, I am in her palace but how did I get here? I don't remember–

And just like a thread snaps in my head, the memories comes rushing back to me from the last time I was conscious. I remember the Knife Festival, finding out Damian is my mate, I put up a fight with him because I've been so frustrated at him for holding back and when he found out he is my mate, he started behavior like I wished he had behaved when we were dating. The both of us share a brief moment of bliss and after that, I can't explain what I felt when our foreheads touched each other, it was like nothing I've never felt before. It was intimate, much more than any physical thing. I felt him, all his emotions, his struggles, I felt all of it just like he felt mine and I knew what he was feeling.

We moved to my room and wrapped around each other while he slipped into me. It was as if my body was coming alive for the very first time. And when we reached our climax, it was together, I don't know anything about having a mate or what the rules was but that moment that we climax together, I knew that I would spend the rest of my life with him. It was like a silent promise between us.

Then the Queen summoned me and he went with me, apparently she was dying and needed a new body to host her very much alive soul. As if I would let anyone touch me. She was thinking about killing me and Damian–

My eyes widen when I remember that sound. The sound of his neck snapping. She said he would live, I have no doubt he would but I can't feel him, actually now that I'm thinking about it, I can't feel anything. Not in my heart or my skin. The air in Di Hipsodat is thick, thicker and harsher than the ones on Earth. But right now I can't feel anything. I don't think I even feel alive. I'm empty and that isn't a good feeling.

I stand up and look around the common room in the Queen's palace where each door leads somewhere but there's something wrong here. They've changed this place because it looks and feels bigger.

This room, the time I was here, there were only eight door but right now there are more than twenty.

Something is wrong. I close my eyes and try to remember how I got here because I don't think they'll just leave me laying on the ground. Something feels wrong I–

After the queen told us about her plans, Damian fought her guards but she interfered and snapped his neck and instructed them to take me.

"Let me go! Let me go now! Damian!" I'd scream, thrashing at the hands of those holding me hostage as the drag me out of the throne room.

I heard it, the sound of his neck break and the soft inhale of his last breath. I heard it. I've never been worried about Damian's survival until now because I know no matter what he'd come back to me but this time it feel different. I don't think I'm ever going to see him again.

"Unhand me, you fucker! Fucking let me go!" I tried to move my hands but those fucker were too strong for me, it waa like their hands are made of stone as they tightened their grip, it was hard enough to cut the flow of blood.

"Don't make me take your voice," Lurytendra warned behind me. I didn't know she was following us.

I kicked a leg back, hoping one of them will hit her knees or any part of her body but I meet with an empty space. "Fuck you! Fuck yo–" the words seized in my throat all of a sudden that feel like something's stuck there.

I coughed and cleared my throat but it wouldn't leave. I moved my lips to talk but nothing came out, that was when I realized that she'd taking my voice like she promised.

What did she want with me?

"I've told you what I want, your body." She replied my thoughts. It was not a surprise, she's a telepath, a powerful one at that.

I didn't do anything, I complied as we move to the temple, not doing anything because without my voice I can't do magic and my other powers is connected to her, I couldn't used them. All I could relay on was my magic.

The guard released me once we enter the temple, I fell on my knees and not given the chance to recover as two women in black cloaks approached me, they stopped in front of me, not doing anything just looking at me.

What are they doing?

They seem occupied, I could try and make a run for it and–

"Go where, Camille?" The cold feminine voice asked. The two women now their head and took two steps backwards as the footsteps approached and comes to stand in front of me like the women had done but this time I recognized the bitch standing in front me. "That's not a nice thought you have about me there, Camille." I looked up and met her stoic expression. I've never met a woman so cold and unfeeling until her.

Is she even a woman?

She removed her hands from behind her, showing me her tight fist. "You know I used to be the most feared creature across the Galaxy but it's been so long since I've been to a war and I missed it. I miss the cries of soldiers as I slaughter them on the field. I miss the smell of blood and I miss how I feel after a war. I haven't been able to fight because of my body but something is coming, Camille, I can feel it and I know it bigger and more powerful than me. I cannot face it with my dying body, and that's why I need you or rather your young and healthy body, and your sharp mind."

She uncurled her finger, releasing her fist and at the same time the lump in my throat disappeared. She's given me my voice back.

"So you're going to let me die because of it? You are going to let your family, your granddaughter die. What kind of person are you?"

"I am who I am, and I know what I am. I wish I could apologize for this but I do not feel sorry for you." She takes a step back and commands over her shoulder. "Mala."

The two women in cloaks moved at the sound of her voice and came to me, they wrapped their hands around my arm and pulled me up. The Queen's eyes was on me like she knows what I was about to do.

"Don't." She earned. "Don't do it."

"You think I'd go down without a fucking fight? I thought you said you knew me, you don't know shit about me. Ignisia." I cast the spell of fire but nothing happens.

That can't be right.

"Las von do ignisia."

Nothing.

My magic isn't working.

"That's right, your magic won't work here and you cannot conjure your dead Ravens because they are not Ravens in Di Hipsodat and this is not Earth. The temple is a holy place, nothing dark is allowed in." She smirked.

"You mean like you, I don't need magic to kick ass!" I raised my legs and dropped it with full force on the women besides me foot and tried to push the other one but I realized both women weren't reacting, not the one I step one.

Lurytendra threw her head back and laughed hard, a sadistic laughter.

When I found out I had an alien grandmother, a warrior bad ass queen, I was glad. Never did I imagine she would be so cruel.

She stopped laughing like she heard what I just said, who was I kidding? Of course she could hear, she's been in my head since I arrived here.

"Gaea didn't say anything about you being conscious through the process. You've pissed me off, Camille and I hate being pissed off. Okay I'm lying, I love being angry because then I can do this." Her lips tipped up in a wicked smirk and the next thing I know was the stabbing pain I was feeling in my brain. "Unhand her, she won't be a problem anymore."

The women released me, giving me the opportunity to hold my hand. The pain was like none I've never felt before, I knew some of the things I was feeling that was nothing I'd felt before. It was like having something drilling through my skull.

I fwll on my knees with my head still in my head. "PL... please, please." I was breathing heavily as I begged for her mercy. I felt my nose bleeding, she was killing me and yet I can't scream out in pain or for help.

The fading sight of my blood dropping on the floor of the temple was the last thing I saw and pain of my brain melting was the last thing I felt before everything went dark.

Whatever she did to me was enough to knock me out but where I am? Am I dead? I mean I should be. She said I should be dead but why am I here? Actually, wait... is this the afterlife?

Nah it can't be. I can't die in that bitch kingdom and my afterlife is her palace. No, no, no, no.

I open my eyes and gasp when I notice the change in environment. I'm still in the palace and the many doors are still here, although they seem to have multiplied and everywhere is white like plain white matching the door. It's like I'm in a while room.

I face the direction that leads to the exit but there is no exit, just another set of doors. They are all–

Wait, something is happening.

The doors are multipling all around me, each door split into two, the new ones forming above the ones available before. And the colors are different. The ones on the ground level is red, the one above is all white and above that is a single door and it's color black.

I wonder what they mean. I mean this just confirms that I'm not in afterlife, I think I'm in some kind of in between, the place where the dead go when they're stuck, when they have an unfinished business. I should figure out my unfinished business before I ascend.

"This is crazy," I say with a chuckle but my words and chuckle echoes back and the bad copy of my voice sends some kind of vibrates wave to me that shakes my core.

I definitely feel that.

Taking a deep breath, I approach the first door at the ground level. I know Di Hipsodat doors are different than Earth's, no hand or knob, I just enter and that's what I do. I close my eyes and walk through to see the hell that await me on the other side.