Somewhere in the darkness, Grimm spoke among it while I hid beneath a blanket pretending to be asleep.

"Fate is being unfair once again. She is never going to forgive me for what I did and I never expected it from her either. But she knows what she is doing—She knew you would become fatal to me. " He pauses and I think I can hear his heart beating fast, or maybe the phantom of it.

 "I know you said you didn't want apologies but I must say this. You deserve everything this world has to offer and you should be allowed to live it. Taste, see, hear, and touch all of the beauty of the world. Eventually, you will fall in love with it and then one day someone will be by your side continuing to watch you fall in love with it. I know it could never be me by your side, I have always known it could never be me but whenever I'm with you, I'm nothing but a foolish man. Not a God. Not a Capturer. Not Death. And yet, you constantly remind me of what I am." I bite the inside of my cheek, hard.

Grimm continues, his voice hard yet strained. "So, I'll stop pretending to be foolish and I'll be what I am. You're simply the mortal who will give me my wings and that's all you must be." He said as if he was trying to convince himself and I hated it. I hated him. I hated him because I wanted him to stay and be my foolish man.

His footsteps move closer, feeling his cool looming presence. "I only ask for you to live for a long time so that when we meet again, you'll have a thousand stories to tell me. I need you to make the walk long enough for me to capture your words, your voice, and your beauty. I must remember all of it. Although I doubt I could ever forget you. You have invaded my body and planted yourself in my mind. If my heart and mind don't remember you, then my shadows will." Grimm whispers. "As Death, I will be selfish with you until the very end. Walk slowly with me before I must let you go again. That is all I ask."

I let my heart weep for one last time that night.

*****

I once followed a butterfly into a forest in the middle of the night because I didn't think something so pretty could exist in the dark. But I was so focused on their wings, their beautiful wings. The moonlight painted them in pale blue and yet, somehow they twinkled like when the moon kissed the river. I was enamored by the butterfly I had forgotten about the night altogether and its dangerous nature. 

Everyone is afraid of the dark because they believe something is there with them and if they stay away from the dark, they won't get hurt. For me, it was the butterfly and the butterfly would not hurt me. I stayed with the butterfly watching it flutter its wings at a rapid speed. It would stop, slow down, and then up its speed again. I quickly realized the butterfly was hopelessly flapping their wings. It was dying and gasping for the last minutes of air or memorizing how the wind movement brushed against their wings.

One last flutter and it spun like a falling autumn leaf. I caught the butterfly on my palm and walked out of the woods, only to be welcomed by a frightened scream. It was a young man. He ran in the opposite direction, flailing his arms and yelling for help. I learned two things that night. One, men fear little girls. Two, people fear the darkness but what they fear the most is what could step out of the dark.

Beasts and monsters are subdued by the dark but what happens when they come out? They show what they have festered in the dark.

I have been raised in the dark, and I wanted to continue to hide there as I was taught. Whether my parents or grandmother did it for my safety it doesn't matter anymore because at the end of the day what has been hidden in the dark must come out.

It's time I stepped out of it.

Dilara looked surprised to see me standing and dressed to go outside. My skin was still pale and my eyes were bloodshot red but I needed to get up. My heart was barely surviving the waves of grief except, my mind was becoming clearer and begun to work out the logic of what happened to my mother and brother. The spirits tricked me into thinking the fire killed my mother and that she was the only person I lost. I do wonder why Refugio never told me the truth but her mind was just as scattered as mine. She raised me as best as she could and that was a challenge itself.

"I need to go pay my family a visit," I said, quietly. "Will you come with me?"

Her eyes widened, falling into a pitiful look. She knew where we would be going and I almost didn't want to take her there but I needed her to come with me. She had to see the reality of my world. I needed her to come and see what the council has done to my family, only then, would she understand what I was going to do next. Dilara nodded her head as she pressed her hands against her clothes trying to smooth out the wrinkles of her clothes or maybe she was doing it out of pure nerves. She quickly grabbed her coat.

I walked over to one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out a notepad. "I'll tell you everything, but in exchange I want you to answer my question." I messily wrote, visiting the dead, with full of life, raven. I added a looped v-shaped bird next to the name Grimm always likes to call me.

Briefly, I thought about what he said last night. I knew Death could be charming but who knew he could also make you want to live, to cherish what we call life? I could almost taste it, hear it, see it, and I craved it. But that is not the life I was born for, it feels as if the moment I came out of my mother all I intended was for pain and suffering.

However, I will no longer suffer by myself. Others will fall into the same despair as I have, but they won't know how to crawl out of it.

"I have always answered your questions," Dilara said, confused.

She has always answered my questions but she might not want to answer the next question I would. There is no doubt in my mind that my mother and brother were killed by orders of the council. They have been after my father for a long time and if they knew about my mother and brother, of course, they would kill them. My father has killed mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. It makes sense as to why they killed my mother and brother, they wanted my father to feel the same loss as them.

I recall the words of the first warlock I encountered, the one who broke into my apartment and tried to kill me. He called my father a madman after hearing my mother's death, and maybe he did become mad but they killed his entire family first. His brothers and sisters. My mother, brother, and I were all he had left. And they took that away from him. They took that away from me.

I still needed to know why they killed his family. It couldn't purely be because they practiced dark magic. There must have been another reason, and I needed the answers. I was done not having answers. I needed to find my father and talk to him.

I placed the note on the fridge if Grimm came looking for me. "Nora, I'm honestly worried about you," Dilara spoke up. "You spent four days locked inside your room, crying and mumbling 'I'm sorry' and before that, in the circus tent, you were channeling dark magic as if it coursed in your blood. No witch should do that," Her hand slightly trembled. "No one can be born with dark magic."

"I can only tell you what I know," I said.

Her brow pinched together as she frustratingly said. "Then suddenly, you are acting like none of that happened. You look—you look cold and angry."

It's cold where I am and very lonely, and my anger is what is keeping me warm.

Dilara didn't know what images kept playing inside my head. What words, sounds, and smells were suffocating me. It's all over my body and it has plunged my heart to the point where I don't know how it is still beating. But I would tell her everything, I only hope she answers my question.

I turned around and looked at her, her brown wavy hair was slightly disheveled. "Crying isn't productive and this is a much better look, don't you think?" I joked but she didn't find it amusing.

I sigh, "I want to tell you everything, but I want to ask you my question right now and you can answer it once you've heard everything." I take a step forward. "What are the names of each council member?"

She looks puzzled and her mouth opens to tell me the names but a sudden realization runs across her face. Her gaze hardens as she inhales sharply. The room is quickly filled with cut-throat silence. I know she won't tell me, but she has to tell me. I deserve it. I deserve the names of the people who killed my mother and brother.

I tilt my head to the side, "We should get going, the florist closes in an hour." I march past her but she reaches for my arm and grasps it. "Are you planning to walk the same path as your father? There is no point in it. They're thirteen of them. They're the most strongest and powerful witches and warlocks in this country, not even your father can kill them. You'll die." Dilara grits out.

A laugh almost escapes my throat, but I shove it down. "A lot of people want me dead because there is a rumor spreading that Nicolás Del Luna has a daughter, and she is alive. Sooner or later, the council will find out I am alive, and they're going to want to kill me. I'm simply getting a headstart." She drops her hand from my arm, her lips pressed together. "And I'm the one who gets to say who will die." My heart pounds from the warning.

I am the banshee. People die before me.

I grab my coat and put it on. "Come on, let's go before it gets late." Dilara still looked unsure but she followed me out the door.