"How long has it been since I left?" Silva gulped, hesitating "Saul answer me"

"Three months"

"What?" Verena muttered, looking for any sign that it said he was lying. She didn't find it.

"Celeste you disappeared for three months"

Verena was silent. Holding his wrists, she moved her face out of his reach. She looked at herself in the mirror again.  Her expression hardened. Her eyes becoming empty again.

"Celeste...."

"Three months" she whispered, getting up "I lost three months. Too much time....Cassian"

Everyone was still in shock, it took a few seconds for them to understand that she ran out of the room.

Silva was the first to follow her. When he found her, she was sitting next to Cassian. Like Verena, he spent the week slipping in and out of consciousness. He was pale and had a constant fever.

"My baby" Verena cried running her hands through his hair. Leaning over and placing a kiss on his forehead she murmured "I only hurt you. Forgive me. Forgive me."

"You did this?"  Nicolai asked

"The connection he has with me" She replied without taking her eyes off Cassian "I must have stopped blocking him when I lost conscience. It was too much for him"

Taking a deep breath, Verena closed her eyes and placed her hands over Cassian's eyes. Little by little the color returned to his face. The flushed cheeks and redder lips.

"Mommy?"  he called, opening his eyes at the same time as her

"Hi love" she whispered to him

Opening a big smile, Cassian throws his little arms around his mother's neck, squeezing her as much as he could.

"I missed you" he said, moving away and seeing the cuts on her body. His forehead and eyebrows wrinkled and a small pout formed in his mouth. "Why are you hurt mom?"

"Mom went to a place where there were a lot of broken glass" she explained slowly

"Why can't you heal?"

"I'm a little weak love"

Cassian, without hesitation, held Verena's hands. Without breaking eye contact, their magical energy seemed to flow between them, going from one to the other.

"What is happening?" Silva asked "What are they doing?"

"Healing themselves" Lilura replied quietly "Inside and out. But Verena never taught him that..."

"Then how does he know?"

"I've seen Mom do this many times" Cassian replied with a smile.

Verena looked at him with pride.  He was always smart.  Always learned quickly.

"Verena?"  Dorian approached "You still haven't told us what happened. Where have you been?"

"Home" she replied after a few seconds of silence "I went home"

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Cassian's laugh put a smile on everyone's faces. Everyone was relieved that he was better. Nicolai and the others played with him around the yard while Verena and Silva sat on the porch steps. It had been a few hours since Verena woke up.  And she hasn't said another word since answering Dorian's question.

Gathering his courage and swallowing hard, Silva decided to ask the question he was sure everyone wanted the answer to.

"Celeste?" he called

"What?"

"Where have you been?"

"I already answered that. I went home"

"Where is it?"

"Far away"

"My God, Celeste" Silva took a deep breath rubbing his hands over his face "I thought we were past that"

" Of what?"

"Of you hiding things"

"Nobody hates this more than me, okay? I wish I could say everything that's on my mind." Verena shouted, drawing the attention of others. "Saul, I've done a lot of bad things. More than you know. Some of them are so cruel, the things I did at Alfea are just a small sample of what I'm capable of. If you knew, you would look at me with disgust. But if you saw what I did to those people, to my home, to my own family, you would call me a monster.  Because that's who I am"

"You're not a monster..."

"Yes, I am! And I'm not going to stop. I can't stop. I've reached the point that it doesn't matter if the intentions are good, I'm just going to do the wrong things. Because this is me now. I don't care about the consequences anymore as long as I get what I want."

"And what do you want?"

Verena didn't respond. She just turned her back and entered the house telling everyone to follow. With everyone gathered at the bottom of the stairs, she looked at everyone with a look of regret and guilt.

"Celeste..." Silva caught her attention "What are you going to do?"

"One more wrong thing" She replied sighing "You know that I have to leave again. And I know about the binding and tracking spells that were done to me while I was sleeping. If you know that I can track magic no matter how small, why did you do it?"

"We hoped that being weak, you wouldn't feel it" Nicolai replied without looking at her

"No matter how weak I am, I feel everything. And I'm not going to risk you guys getting in my way. And to ensure that, I have to make sure you stay in here, without trying to get out and end up getting hurt because of it."

"What are you going to do?"  Silva repeated the question

"Of all of us here, I know the most what it's like to have your time stolen from you. But I've already thrown the rule of not doing to others what I don't want them to do to me out the window"

"Mommy" Cassian approached her hugging her

"Please forgive me. You're too young to go through things like this"

"It's okay mom" Cassian smiled "You're going to come back, right? Without being hurt?"

"Of course I'll come back. And I'll try to be careful. Okay?"

"Celeste.."

"You're going to sleep until I get back. When you wake up, it'll be like it's only been one night. Sorry."

Nobody had time to protest. Everything went dark.

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With a knock on the cell bar, Silva woke up seeing a guard holding a tray.

"Breakfast"

That's how it's been since he was arrested. He only saw a guard three times a day when they brought him something to eat. Looking at the other prisoners around him, he saw that they were already eating. Silva didn't know their names or what they did to be there. Neither prisoner spoke to another.  Nobody knew each other. All one could do was try to count the days. Unfortunately, Silva lost count after a few months.

The only comfort Silva had were his dreams, of a big white house in the forest.

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