Charlotte spent the rest of the day just laying sideways on the bed, holding her knees up close to her chin, trembling from the coldness that came from within her. Sylve was right, nothing she could do to warm herself up. She tried to wrap herself with a thick wool blanket but it did not work at all. She still felt as cold as ever.

She was not hungry or thirsty.

And she heard it again: Thunderous roar that seemed to come from inside the earth, from underground. It came with what seemed like a small earthquake, a gentle shake of the room, and the candle holders that swayed. Is it Rogh? She sat up on the bed, calmed her breath to listen better, and when she did, she decided: It was indeed the roaring of a raging animal—at least she thought it was some sort of animal. Rogh was the demon king, could he be then an animal, beast-like creature?

She fell laying down on the bed again, her mind began to get fuzzy, and that scared her even more. She kept repeating her name, her research focus during her Ph.D training years, her favourite moments with Mom, with Dad, her games with the kids at birthday parties when she was MissCharLee, her friends' names, even her ex-boyfriend ...

She kept repeating and when breathing became harder, she sat up and noticed that the tip of her fingers had turned blue-purple.

The memories she tried to recall to keep her grounded as to who she was, she was not sure anymore if they were accurate or they were just figments of her imagination.

It was at that moment, when the spring sun outside had set, Sylve entered the room again together with four of her followers.

Charlotte struggled to sit up.

Each follower stood at a corner of the room, and Sylve came to her with a cup of liquid.

"Drink this, Charlotte," Sylve extended the cup to Charlotte, and she saw the liquid inside was clear, bubbling, but it was not hot.

Charlotte's brain sputtered alive as she processed Sylve's words. The liquid. The potion to help me. To prevent me from being a demon.

She took the cup, her hands were trembling that the liquid inside the cup started sloshing about.

In one gulp, she drank the liquid, not wasting a single drop in the cup.

The liquid went down her throat, it tasted like a watery beer. It smelled strange, sour and pungent.

As the strange liquid went down her stomach, she started feeling warm, then hot like there was a flame being set right in her intestines.

The next thing she knew she was screaming in pain, thrashing about on the bed, clawing the bedsheet.

Sylve signaled two of her followers to come and hold Charlotte's hands when she began to claw herself.

Two followers came and grabbed Charlotte's hands and pressed them down to the bed.

Charlotte screamed and cried in pain at the same time.

"What do we do now, Lady Sylve?" one follower who was not holding Charlotte came and stood next to her, whispering in worry.

"It does not work," Sylve muttered with a huff of deep disappointment and desperation. "I could make another potion and let her drink it, but it would kill her. Immora clings to her because she was so gentle, so human and immora sees her as a perfect prey, a delicious meal to finish." The old sorceress shook in sadness as her heart broke in pieces when she witnessed the pain that Charlotte was fighting. The follower shook her head and gaze sideways.

Sylve sighed, and spoke in grief,"It is now a choice between letting her turn to be a demon, or letting her have a second cup of potion, destroying herself and immora within her, and she shall die as a human tonight."

Sylve stood stiff, and tears bubbled at the corner of her wrinkled eyes.

<<<>>>

Arran heard Charlotte's screams from his cottage and he fell on his knees. Each scream stabbed him in the heart and he felt the pain that cut him like a thousand knives.

From the continued screaming, he knew that the potion failed to get immora out from Charlotte's body. It would stay within her and she would turn into a demon.

There was no other way. Arran grabbed his silver necklace, nodded his head.

He would do it, and he would face the consequences, but if it could help Charlotte, then it would all be worth it.

"So be it ..." he whispered to himself as he took off his necklace and started running to the castle.

His heart was steadfast. He knew what he had to do to help Charlotte.

<<<>>>

Sylve stood still, leaning on her walking cane, her fingers grabbed it so hard that the knuckles turned white. The screams of Charlotte sliced her heart and let her feel the pain too.

There was one more way to save Charlotte.

One last resort.

But she could not bring herself to do it. Am I callous to Charlotte? My heart is torn. To save Charlotte, an innocent human in this whole catastrophe, means I would lose Arran, my grandson. But I know Arran loves Charlotte, and he will do it.

"Lady Sylve."

Sylve shut her eyes tight. Arran had come into the room.

She turned around and saw Arran at the door. The silver necklace was not around his neck, but in his grasp.

She knew what Arran would do. Just as she had thought just now.

"Arran, are you sure?" she asked without taking her eyes off the necklace.

Arran did not answer, the towering warrior stared straight at Charlotte who by now had lost most of her strength and just cried and thrashed about weakly on the bed. The two followers of Sylve still held her hands down to the bed.

"You and I know this silver necklace is the only one strong enough to keep her human, to beat the demonic influence of immora within her," Arran turned to look at Sylve and he spoke in such a calm tone that Sylve knew his heart was already set.

"But how about you, Arran? You need that necklace."

"Have you forgotten why my mother, Evinia, your daughter, created this necklace for me? She took all her love, her kindness, her light, and pour it all in this necklace moments before she passed away. But this necklace is never meant to be for me. My mother wished so much for me to find someone who will be my light for the rest of my life. She wanted for me to give this necklace to the one I love. Isn't that what you always told me?"

Sylve trembled at the weight of her own emotion, and nodded at Arran.

"I have found my light, Sylve. I saw her that day, singing, dancing, with that child. I have never known what light felt like until that day. I will not let that light be extinguished."

"But you forget one thing, Arran. You have to give that necklace to someone who loves you as much you love her. The light from that necklace and her love for you are the ones who will sustain you, prevent you from falling into darkness when Rogh gets stronger. Now how do you know if Charlotte loves you as much as you love her? She is still a stranger to you!"

Arran took a deep breath. "I will take that chance, Lady Sylve."

"If she does not love you back, you will be giving away the necklace for nothing and let yourself lose your armor against Rogh's increasing darkness," Sylve sounded sorrowful, then she continued,"That necklace is a vow of love. If you give it to Charlotte, it means much more than a present, a way to help her. It is a—"

"A marriage. I am marrying Charlotte. That is what giving this necklace to her means."

"And you are sure about this?"

"Yes."

Sylve took a deep breath and walked closer to Arran. "I cannot let you walk around freely in this castle once your necklace is given to Charlotte. With Rogh getting so much stronger day by day, without your necklace, without any certainty that Charlotte would love you back, you-well, you could be a danger to-to us here."

"I understand, Lady Sylve. Do what you need to do."

Sylve nodded. "I never thought this day would come. You, the untouchable, are able to save someone's life with your love."

Charlotte began to shiver and scream again, and they knew, the time had come for the bedside wedding to happen.

<<<>>>

Charlotte never thought she could withstand the pain like she did now. She was thrashing about, and she was so scared though she could not say it out loud.

She saw Arran came into the room, and he was talking seriously with Sylve.

He also looked at her, then he spoke to Sylve again.

Charlotte could not hear what they were talking about, though she saw Arran's silver necklace with sun pendant was in the grasp of his hand.

Then Sylve walked toward her, followed by Arran.

The sorceress sat next to her, and spoke to her in slow, well-articulated words to ensure her understanding.

She understood the words well: Necklace, Arran, marriage. The last resort to prevent immora turning her into a demon.

The only hope now for her to be saved from the immora was Arran's necklace, Arran would let her have his necklace, a necklace created by the love and light of his late mother specifically for a wedding between Arran and the one he loved.

Arran is giving me his necklace, which means he is marrying me, to save me from immora. Charlotte understood as much.

"A marriage between the light and the darkness is the only way to give you a chance at staying alive. Alive as a human," Sylve tapped her hand gently. "The light from this necklace will balance the darkness of immora within you. We hope that this will prevent you from becoming a demon."

I do not want to be a demon. Charlotte repeated that over and over in her head though the pain she felt made the whole thinking process become so hard.

"Charlotte, do you understand what we need to do?" Sylve bent her back to get closer to Charlotte's face.

Charlotte stared at the sorceress, then at Arran. This was not how she dreamed her wedding to be like—there was no flower and decoration, no beautiful white dress, no photoshoot of herself and the bridesmaids wearing a red clown nose, no father daughter dance, no quiet sunset ceremony by the hill, no delicious food and drink. None of those would happen now.

Arran. An emergency husband. An emergency, life-saving marriage. She knew what she had to do. She took a breath and nodded hard.

Sylve nodded too, and motioned for Arran to come next to her.

The two followers let go of Charlotte's hands, and helped her to sit up.

The pain that seemed to come from all over her body was still there, but Charlotte strengthened her heart.

And Arran.

He did seem like a decent guy. Rather bashful, and not bad looking either.

"Are you ready?" Sylve asked.

Charlotte paused, struggled to gather her thought, and nodded.

Arran sat across from her on her bedside, and the necklace was on his palm. The sun pendant glimmered a gentle white light, and Sylve nodded to Arran.

"My mother has created this necklace, poured all her love and kindness and light in it. This is to be given to the one who will be my light for the rest of my life ..." Arran spoke, paused, and continued,"With this necklace, I choose you and I marry you, Charlotte. This is yours to keep now."

At the end of Arran's sentence, the necklace and the pendant glowed silver light, and suddenly it floated a few cm from Arran's palm. It turned around a few times, and it flew gently to Charlotte. It floated in front of Charlotte until Arran took it and put it around Charlotte's neck. The gentle glow of the necklace diminished like it was absorbed into Charlotte's body, until it was just like regular silver necklace around Charlotte's neck.

Sylve was surprised. "I have no idea my daughter Evinia could do this kind of sorcery. When she was alive, she was always the kindest, gentlest soul. All animals loved her, the birds would come to her everyday. But this ... this is beautiful. I have never seen the necklace and the pendant glowed and floated like that."

Charlotte felt a wave of warmth that washed over her, and her pain subsided to the point she could think about what had happened. Her body was exhausted, she slumped on the bed.

Arran nodded to her. "It is done," he whispered.

"Thank you, Arran."

Arran seemed like he wanted to say something, but he cancelled it at the last moment and just nodded.

"I hope I can be a good wife," Charlotte was not sure how that sentence came about, it was just blurted out of her mouth and realized that she sounded like she was drunk.

Arran's blue eyes widened at what she had said. He looked at her with such serene gaze and whispered,"Rest now, Charlotte."

Charlotte did not hear his sentence because her eyes had closed and she had fallen in deep sleep in utter exhaustion after what had happened to her.

"I will not see you much at all. I hope what I have done is enough to help you," whispered Arran, his right hand hovered close to Charlotte's cheek, wanting to caress it. It hovered closer, then he pulled it back without touching Charlotte like he was afraid a touch of him on her skin would ruin her.

Sylve was still, clutching her walking cane, her brows furrowed deep before finally she gave order to her followers,"Bring him away. You all know what you need to do. Arran is without his necklace now."

Arran turned to look at his grandmother with a steely determination."I will walk there by myself, Lady Sylve. I am not going to fight you about it. I am at peace with what I have done." With that, Arran took one last look at Charlotte, and walked out of the door.