His feet hurt.

He knew it was a bad idea not to warm up, before climbing up the hill using wind propulsion to arrive early.

Each step stung, and the heels on the boots did not help.

Wind swirled around his feet, he clenched one of the pearls in his bracelet between his fingers, as he waved with his free hand for the winds to abide his call and propel him to the end of the staircase.

His eyes shimmered.

In a matter of seconds Raeb stood at the doorframe of the abandoned castle, where Maximoff had agreed to hear his plea.

"Hello?"

The royal bellowed as, no light seemed to come or illuminate the emptied grounds, instead a putrid smell, something had either died nearby, or had been rotting.

Deep inside the fortress was not so ruined, it was true vines and moss had taken this place as their home, but the neo-gothic windows, arches and plentiful towers seemed well-kept. In the mantle of stars above the moon hung almost mature, almost ready like an apple about to be ripped off the branch for the harvest.

Raeb ventured into the courtyard, his right hand already counting for the seconds, ready to burn another pearl of vorpalite to cast the next spell when the voice of the hematophagous noble broke the silence.

"You're early"

Raeb turned around, his face tilted up to gaze at his glowing red eyes.

    "Punctuality can be everything to the right mind."

    "Tell me then, why did you come."

Vlad asked as he softly caressed the chest of the prince, beginning to walk around him, like a lion circling its prey.

    "You know the ice queen is lying, there is no way what happened with her gift would ever be a decoy or an order of mine."

He knew the Stryx was listening to his heart, a slip up and he'd be bloodied out.

    "I'm not interested on going to war with her."

The blood sucker confirmed.

Raeb was fortunate Vlad was not his type, but he wasn't ugly, his face had a Greek-like quality like a statue of the ancient god of desire, and his lanky fibrous built fit for an enchanting model of said sculptures or a model of the best designers, he was sure Vlad had the might to swoon any lady that found the brooding type a win.

    "We are not, that'd be foolish."

Vlad turned to him.

There was a skip out of excitement.

    "I need someone strong-willed on my council, and I think you're the perfect candidate."

Vlad's expression was empty.

    "Go back to your palace flying twat, and make sure your kingdom is safe."

The vampiric prince turned his back to the young king.

    "Wait, no. You don't understand."

    "I'm cutting you some slack little prince, what you ask of me to do will prove there's still children of the night out there in the world and for all we know we may as well be dead if it becomes general knowledge."

    "There may be an issue with that."

Vlad turned to him, eyes burning red like torchlights.

    "What did you do?"

Maximoff grunted menacingly.

    "I coerced the vampire queen to bring me my sister, in exchange for an amendment in the protected species act."

Raeb's voice, clear, not a doubt on him.

    "What?!!"

    "I will be making the hunters register and answer for the diaspora, accordingly to the laws, the first steps to make all the Stryx, were-beast and children of the land able to be recognized as any citizen of the kingdom."

The vampiric overlord took a step back as the monarch continued:

    "I already won, I blackmailed all of the members in the chamber of law, I suppressed all hatred towards our folk, don't you see Vlad? I won."

    "Then you do what's best and stop getting involved."

    "That's how it going to be, huh."

    "You shouldn't get to decide the fate of my people!"

The noctambule man's voice grew angrier.

    "I do because someone has to, because that's my people too! they are people of the kingdom, don't we all deserve some peace?"

Vlad turned to face him.

"Don't you ever get tired, don't you see all the blood spilled and think, maybe there should be a way to respond equally?"

"An eye for an eye and we all go blind."

"And yet in the time we live in some will grow their eyes back, or get a bionic one, and we the capable, we'll see once again all those lost eyes meant nothing."

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

"Maybe you're right and no one will ever learn from the past." Raeb shook his head as he reached for his ruby brooch "No one but those who can live and learn from long ago."

Vlad looked at the king's fingers, Raeb had twenty-three by now, most royals had been in nuptial balls or plans by that age, but the young man in front of him, had no wedding rings, no compromise to display at hand. The child of night new exactly the reason behind all that.

"Rae, I didn't mean to..."

"You don't get to feel sorry for me. So, listen closely bat, you are coming to the hall of Harmonia with me, but first you need to sit in the throne of night. Do that and we the children forgotten by men will inherit the ratchet place they dare call home, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes."

Vlad assured as he gazed at the king's crystalline and wrathful stare.

:::

:::

Bianca blinked at the girl in front of her.

The more they looked at each other, the more perplexed they were on their similarities, same button nose, same eyebrows, same chin, same curls to a certain extent.

If Rose was autumn given skin, Bianca was winter given a daughter.

"I'm so sorry for whatever my brother ever said."

    "No, I, I'm so sorry I can't repay your kindness."

Bianca held hot cocoa on her hands, the spiced aroma made her mind buzz with little memories of her stepmother, she remembered queen Galia's recipes, hot chocolate, tamales, café con leche, something in the preparation Rose made, felt like a hug, felt cozy, felt like home.

The men behind them were calm by this point, although the princess was not used to the presence of her subjects so close to her, less so someone with a mutation.

Jean or "Red" as he preferred had a gentle smile, his angular factions framed him in his early twenties, his skin was rosier in comparison to his sister, his hair was short and beige, and his eyes were a deep walnut brown. his vest was overrun by pockets and buckles, a tactical style that matched the collapsible weapon on his belt. On his shoulders two buckles connected with a hooded red cloak, a red like none she had ever seen.

Ulv on the other hand, was rough, his frame made him look like a full grown man, with well-developed muscles, his chest being the biggest giveaway, as it was large to a degree Bianca thought of as cartoonishly impossible, he had hair all over his arms, and what little chest she could get a glimpse of. Unlike Red a shade of ombre on his face gave away the presence of a beard that if unkept would make a bushy result. His eyes glowed unnaturally yellow, while his skin was cinnamon with dark black curly hair.

    "What's a royal doing over here anyway, are you okay?"

    "Believe it or not, it's a bit of a story, they sent me here to seek shelter in the name of Tau- Taurus? Thaulla?"

    "Thaumesias"

"Who is he?"

"A friend of our father"

Added Red.

    "Right, but I think we can't be of much help, our grandma was the only other person who knew where he went, and she is..."

"Dead?"

Bianca gulped.

"She's not dead, dead, Ulv would've known."

The boy in the red hood nodded towards the muscular boy clad in grey and black clothes, his yellow eyes giving away his mutation.

    "He is the..."

    "Don't worry, he won't bite, unless he means to."

Bianca realized then that all the effort, the race to the village of the huntsmen may have all been in vain, her heart ached, her feet were sore, and for the first time in ages she felt hungry, yet impotence was not something she wanted to keep feeling.

    "How do you know your grandma is still alive?"

    "We can show you."

    "Rose, wait."

Ulv's voice sounded deep.

    "It's okay, she's trying to help."

    "We were supposed to call a detective."

He hushed to say.

    "She's no menace, plus I've got the feeling she might be someone to trust with these things, trust me."

Belligerent as his tone was, he still followed the girls to the stairs and up the second level of Grandma Scharlach's home.

Now, Red and Rose had wondered in and out plenty of times, Ulv had been living with the elder ever since he graduated high school, To Bianca the place felt like a wooden labyrinth, it was a weird feeling, she felt dizzy, her head spined as Rose guided her, their arms intertwined as if they were twin vines grown together.

The spindly feeling faded as she entered granny's old room.

Then an aroma overcame her, it felt like going to the nurse back at the palace, a smell like alcohol mixed with sterile instruments had mixed with raspberry tea.

The bed was unmade, the floral curtains flowed over what she could perceive as a big window from which light poured into the room filling in sunlight all around them, the closer she got she realized it led to a balcony, from which she stared at a view of the forest, the crimson, orange and yellow poured from every place even the mountains seemed to be a maroon that almost tasted like wine.

All around the room Bianca looked and peeked for little snippets of clues that could paint out what had happened to old Grey Scharlach, there was something, lines.Lines that seemed too precise, too accurate, cuts on the wood of the floor, cuts on the wallpaper on the wooden walls, there was no splinters, whatever had done them...

"Did your grandma had a habit of using daggers in her room?"

"Not really..."

"She was more of the type to call Ulv names whenever she got angry at the streaming channels."

Red added nodding to the young wolf.

    "That's not any better."

She exclaimed while smiling at him then stared at the balcony, peeking around, until she caught a glimpse of scarlet.

    "Did she ever liked to decorate trees?"

    "What do you mean?"

Bianca pointed at a flowy string of scarlet, at the end of which something had stuck to the tree.

    "What even is that?"

    "Oh no."

Red answered taking a hand to his mouth.

    "That was Ulv's ribbon."

    "What??"

    "It was meant to be a surprise for your first year working at the high tree."

    "I'm not a dog Red."

    "I know you're not, that's why it was going t have the family crest, you are part of the family just as much as anyone."

While the two boys argued like a married couple, Bianca found one last thing of the puzzle, a sound off putting, something was rolling? Bianca knew that when that happened at the moment of fixing a mech or any droid in that case, something must have been loose or not screwed right.

Bianca followed her ear, close to the bed, she found a bottle underneath, inspecting it as she took it out while her company stared at the wax seal at the top that looked like the emblem on Rose's broch.

On the image the moon was underneath a bat being pierced by a spear.

    "Rose, do you know what's inside of this?"

    "One way to find out."

The scarlet clad girl took a knife out of her belt and made a series of quick moves opening the bottle.

In that instant Ulv's eyes shimmered unnaturally.

Bianca smelled the containment.

It reminded her of iron, viscera, and piss all at once, she wished she didn't know what it was.

    "We should close this and get rid of it."

    "Why?"

Rose asked the princess.

    "That's Grandma Grey's blood"

Concluded Ulv in a deep growling voice.

    "And the seal it's from the throne of night, whoever took her, has some major power around here."