The floorboards creaked as heavy-booted feet took slow, uninvited steps into the home. Instantly wary, Fergus moved to grab an empty pan, moulding it with his Talent into a hastily-made and rather crude-looking stake.

"Who are you?" Merida's whispery voice trembled as she addressed the stranger, but Nina already knew the answer. "Lucius," she called out, not knowing what to do.The vampire had somehow found the Camran home, relying on Nina's description of the place from before.

Lucius reached up to lower the hood before removing his gloves. Nina gasped while Fergus and Merida could only stare at the vampire in aghast. The right side of his scalp was missing most of its hair, the skin still raw. The injuries he suffered continued down the right side of his face to the jawbone, the entire area looking like it had been skinned. Bubbling on the skin of his hands revealed they had suffered the same fate as his face.

Nina made to move towards him but Lucius sidestepped her. The uninjured side of his face still registered his shocked disbelief, "Why, Nina?! Why did you do this to me?! To my family?!"

Confusion clouding her grey eyes, she began denying, "I never..."

"I watched my entire family burn to ashes in the sun!! My parents. My sisters. Wisten!" He screamed at Nina before stumbling back, clutching the left side of his head, as if pained by the memory, "It was good weather in the city. Many vampires were out enjoying a stroll. My family were having a picnic in the royal grounds and then, all of a sudden, people were screaming, burning, burning to ashes! To ashes!!!"

"No, I never..." Nina mumbled, unable to comprehend anything.

Fergus had never looked more grim. "Nina. What were the words you uttered?"

The words? She replayed them, word for word, in her mind. 'I place a curse upon the vampire Lucius Bloodreign, that he and every vampire that exists, will never again step under the sun's direct rays, for if they do, their suffering will be no different from being set aflame!'

No different from being set aflame.

No. No, no, no, no, this could not be happening, this could not be true! She had only meant to cause them pain, not actual death! When she uttered those words, she only wanted them to feel like they were burning, not actually be set aflame! She had not even meant to keep the curse permanent, knowing that eventually, when her anger had resided, so would her intent to keep it.

The look on her face must have revealed all, since Fergus groaned, "Oh, Nina, what have you done?"

Nina had no time to reply. A heavy burst of flame flew towards her, giving her less than a second to block it with a wall of ice. Around her, the wood was singed and the bedding had caught fire, but by pure luck, Frida remained unhurt. With her telekinetic Talent, Nina flung Lucius out the door before hastily putting out the fires and then running outside herself.

In the clearing, the broken lovers faced off under the glow of a full moon. As soon as he regained his feet, Lucius threw volleys of fireballs Nina's way, forcing the witch to go on the defence. She managed to place a wobbly ice wall in front of the Camran home for protection while deflecting his fireballs in other directions. Around the clearing, several trees were accidently set alight.

Lucius was forced to change tactics, replacing fireballs with a fiery whip that he swung with gusto at the harried witch. Fury and betrayal driving him deranged, the vampire screamed, "Just die, you piece of filth!"

The words hurt to the bone. She had been called worse by others, but not by a lover. Ex-lover, she reminded herself. Her own anger spiking, she retaliated with ice shards, "If I am filth, then so are you for making me think you loved me and tricking me into giving you powers when you were getting ready to marry another!"

Lucius was forced to cloak himself in a ball of fire until she stopped hurling ice his way. His cloak was now torn in half at the back, having been sliced by a particularly large shard that had penetrated his fiery protective barrier. Eyes flashing in rage, he denounced her words, "You were the one who gave me your powers, something I never even knew you were capable of doing! I only married a vampire for a legitimate heir! I told you I was going to marry you in a few years!"

"Is this how you justify sleeping with her while romancing me with your lies?!"

He roared, "I NEVER SLEPT WITH HER!"

The words echoed throughout the forest, sending nearby animals scurrying away in fright.

Nina growled back, "You have a child!"

"I provided what was needed, in a bottle, and told her to figure out a way to make it work." Once again, he asserted fiercely, "I never slept with her."

Nina was left speechless as they stood staring at each other from opposite sides of the clearing. Finally she said, "Did you think that was enough? You kept the truth from me!"

Lucius lashed back, "Because it was never meant to be an issue! It was a means to an end, to get my father to consent to our marriage, which he did! You should have trusted me. If you could not even do that, then you should have at least asked." Broken, his voice sounded.

"Asked? You should have given me the truth from the very beginning." Nina replied bitterly. How could he even think it was fine to have made such a decision without consulting her?!

"Is this your way of justifying what you have done to me? To my family?! You have destroyed my life and taken away everyone I have ever loved." Staring at her with narrowed eyes swimming with resentment, he said, "I wish I never met you."

Somewhere deep inside her, something that was struggling to remain whole was shattered. The hurt from its destruction was not instantaneous. Rather, it was one of those internal slow bleeds that took time to reveal just how bad the damage was.

Slowly, Lucius backed away, eyes still trained on Nina. With his inner energy reservoir dangerously low, the vampire prince knew there was nothing left to do but to retreat. The two witches within sensed the end to the battle and made their way out, watching as the vampire backed towards the edge of the clearing. Just as Lucius entered the shadows, Fergus threw the prince an intact robe, knowing it would take time for the vampire to return to Hjem, meaning he would likely need to travel during the day. The vampire caught the robe, and paused, but hidden in shadow, no one knew what his expression was. A second later, he was gone.

*****

It took days for Frida to regain consciousness and many more after to regain her strength. Fergus, Merida and Kella were overjoyed, and Nina was relieved that the effects of the curse's backlash were transient. Frida controlled the anger she felt for Nina, and although there was an uneasy distance between them, they still managed to hold conversations from time to time. Not once, however, did they talk of the moment the curse went wrong.

For the Camran family, things were slowly returning to the way they were in their quiet little corner of the world, a utopian bubble away from reality. But for Nina, it felt as if time had come to a halt, frozen at the moment Lucius had uttered those six painful words in what was likely their final farewell. She dazedly helped around the home, or spent most of her time away in the forest, walking random foot trails.

No matter how hard one tried to eschew reality, the mirage of utopia could only ever last for so long. A few weeks after Lucius's departure, Boden paid them a visit, looking like he had not slept in days.

Frida and Merida were seated by the fire. Fergus and Kella were out collecting firewood. Nina sat at the table, lost in thought, only looking up when the tired man entered unannounced.

The witch sisters were immediately tense, unsure whether the Committee had ordered Frida's capture and punishment for her part in the calamity at Onirique. "You remind me of a gutted duck, committee man," Frida said with no small amount of insouciance to the approaching man while trying to gauge his intentions.

"I believe such a duck is probably having a better day than I am," he answered wearily, before comically falling into the nearest chair. Merida graciously handed him some tea, earning his smile of gratitude. She chose the moment to carefully probe, "Why work yourself to the bone at the expense of your health?"

He stared at her owlishly, "Could it be you have not heard?" He made sure to dramatise the incredulity, nearly earning a crude hand gesture from Frida, "Well, of course, you know nothing, out here in this wilderness. I might as well bring you up to speed. Onirique is a ghost town because of a heinous attack by the vampires. Thousands lost. Thousands! We think Lucius Bloodreign orchestrated it with his newfound Talent."

Nina turned wide eyes to Frida, who stared back in apprehension. Only then did Nina know that the four people in the farmhouse were not the only ones whom she killed. Numbness spread throughout her body before invading her mind and slowing down all thoughts but one: the reason why Frida had fought so hard to prevent the curse from happening was because she knew the sacrificial cost it would take to curse an entire race. Not just pigs, or a family of farmers.

An entire city of people.

She had killed them all.

Boden was too self-absorbed to notice the tension in the room. Turning to an overwhelmed Nina, he comforted, "Fear not, Nina. None of the Committee holds you responsible for this. I know not how Lucius Bloodreign did it but I have made sure the blame went where it belonged. I suspect he awakened a secondary Talent that we know nothing of."

"It may well be that he has become a Dark Talent user," Boden added with a sigh. "If I did not know any better, I would have thought you were the reason behind this," he said in an offhand manner to Frida, making sure his contemptuos feelings towards were in full display. He paused, waiting expectantly for one of Frida's rude retorts, but was left hanging when none came.

Curious, he eyed the redheaired witch, but she merely stared back, her expression frustatingly unreadable. Too exhausted to bother engaging in a staring contest, he looked away and continued talking, "However, we need not fear Lucius and his minions. After the attack on Onirique, the werewolves agreed to work with us to retaliate against those bastard bloodsuckers. We now have a werewolf-witch alliance against the vampires!"

He prattled on, "I have spent the past week helping the Committee in organising everything from supply details for the army, to receiving reports from our spies near Hjem. It seems the vampires are laying low during the day in an attempt to fool us. I myself am returning from a reconnaissance mission to Hjem. Mark my words. They will suffer for what they have done to our people! We will flatten Hjem and burn it to the ground!"

The chair Nina was seated on toppled over with how fast she stood, "WHAT?!" Nina hoped she had somehow, by some convoluted way, misheard him, and she was not the only one. Frida and Merida were staring at Boden like he had sprouted a third eye. Panicked, Nina yelled, "NO! You cannot destroy Hjem!"

Boden was more than a little taken aback by their response. He turned to look at each one, at first in mild confusion, but soon a growing suspicion took over. "What are you not telling me?"

"Nothing!" The sisters squeaked in unison. Boden scowled at them before turning his attention instead to Nina since he knew the redheads would reveal nothing.

"Nina, tell me the truth, now!"

She only peered at him with watery eyes, making his hands itch to shake some sense into her. Holding on to the tiniest bit of composure left in him, Boden tried again, this time using a pleading tone flowing with as much urgency as he could feed into it. "Thousands of lives are at stake. If there is something you have kept from me that could prevent an unwarranted war from happening, please tell me."

His tactic worked. The young Nina immediately crumbled. "I tried to curse Lucius, but I did it wrong. Onirique is my fault."

This time, Boden's chair went flying to the ground as he stood staring at Nina, mouth open in a silent scream. It was too much of a shock to the system for the Committee representative as his feet gave out and the man crumbled to the floor. He stayed that way for a good while, hands clutching at his dark hair, tugging from time to time. Just as he seemed about to have a breakdown, Boden snapped out of it, lurching onto unsteady feet before shouting, "I must stop the attack!" Not bothering to address the others, he was out the door and rushing back to the witch's portal.

Nina spent the next blurry moments of her life waiting. For what, she could not be sure but she had ample time for contemplating the answer to that. Maybe it was for news from Boden, telling her the war was on hold. Or perhaps, it was for the Committee to order her arrest. To sentence her for the deaths of every single witch killed in Onirique and its surroundings.

But if she were more truthful to herself, maybe the truest answer was the unlikeliest of them all to happen. Waiting for Lucius to come back. Staring at the open door, hoping to hear the familiar sound of heavy boots on the outdoor steps.

His actions may have been misplaced, but if what he said was true, then his intention had still been to marry her. The issue was he had wanted her in his life while trying to please his father at the same time. He had not placed her first in his priority list. To Lucius, the compromise made sense. To Nina, it did not. But ultimately what she ended up doing, while unintentional, was so much worse. She had destroyed his life and taken away everyone he loved. Which was why she needed to tell him she was sorry for everything. It would solve nothing, but she needed to tell him anyway.

And so she waited. The days passed by but time stood still. Until a letter arrived, hand-delivered by one of Boden's men, sealed in double envelopes for good measure. It was short, the cursive writing messy and rushed, the words excruciating.

Arrived too late to stop the war. King Lucius Bloodreign is dead. Committee has ordered absolute secrecy. None of you are to speak of this in your lifetime. Wait for me Nina, I will personally escort you back to Zandlana.

B.

With an unnatural calm, Nina placed the letter on the table and went to lie down on the bed, facing the wall. There was no reason to keep looking out the door.

The memories fast-forwarded one last time. They were back in Frida's memories, as she watched Nina hand over a blood-soaked stone to Merida. "This should have the newest memories."

Merida took it, a sad smile on her face. "I will miss you dearly, my friend."

"So will I," Nina replied with genuine feeling. She was dressed for travel, long strands of hair tied neatly into a plait. Fergus approached, carrying something which he gently placed in Nina's hand.

"As you requested," he said, voice a gentle rumble. Nina stared at the dainty pendant in her hand, exquisitely crafted into the shape of a sun, inlaid in its centre with the amber Lucius had gifted her. She blinked back tears before thanking him warmly.

Frida crossed her arms, feeling at a loss. On the one hand, she had not yet found a way to forgive Nina for everything that had happened, but on the other hand, it pained her to see the young witch leave. She softly said, "Where will you go?"

"Somewhere Boden and the Committee will never find me." Nina knew the Committee would want her to help in the war. They might even force her to gift her useful Talents to others. There was no other choice but to leave or else add more blood on her already stained hands. Goodbyes done, she waved at the three witches before quickly marching off into the forest with Midnight. Frida watched until the last glint of her rose gold hair was obscured by shadows and mist.