Meenu couldn’t stop crying. No matter what anyone said to her, she just couldn’t stop crying.

     Blood was Avaryn.

     He had lied to her.

     Tricked her even.

     And not to mention all those memories he had locked away in her own mind.

     How was that fair to her?

     All these years of people staring at her and criticizing her and treating her badly… she had always thought that it was all her fault. But it wasn’t. She never did anything wrong.

     Her brother and mother had returned home with her, while her father had to go and sort things out with the army. And as much as they tried to console her, nothing worked.

     Even Knight’s caresses did nothing to make her feel better.

     Soon, she asked to be alone and she was left alone. Except for Knight who, as always, refused to leave her side.

     So she sat at her desk, staring at her bow.

     After the recent turn of events, everything came back to her. Everything.

     This bow… she always loved it for some reason. Now she knew why.

     Avaryn had given it to her as a gift.

     He taught her how to shoot an arrow, and he saw how much she enjoyed doing it that he got this bow custom made for her.

     When she was a child, it was too big… but Avaryn had promised her that one day, when she was old enough and knew how to shoot an arrow, she could use this to fight off the bad people.

     That was why she loved this bow.

     And even Knight…

     Knight was also a gift from Avaryn. He had given Knight to her after finding him abandoned in the forest. He told her that no one would be able to take better care of him then she would.

     Everything was coming back to her.

     As Meenu continued to stare at the bow, tears still streaming down her face, she heard a knock at the door.

     Her mother didn’t wait for her to respond before opening the door. “My love…” Her mother started. “We need to talk.”

     Though Meenu didn’t respond to her, her mother still walked into her room.

     She knelt down next to Meenu and watched her for a long moment before she spoke. “You mustn’t be sad, my love.” She finally said.

     When Meenu didn’t say anything, her mother continued. “I know you must feel betrayed right now… but… something I can promise you is that…” She took a deep breath, wondering if it was wise to say what she wanted to say. And after another moment of thinking, she decided to just say it. “I can promise you, Meenu, that he loved you. Truly. That was not a lie.”

     “How do you know that?” Meenu asked, her voice quiet. “How could you be sure?”

     “Because your father and I know him. We’ve known him since he was a child and he is not a bad man.”

     “He’s the reason why papa limps.”

     “And your father holds no grudge against him for that.” Her mother said. “And in all honesty, he did that partly so that your father wouldn’t stop him from seeing you.”

     “So it’s my fault?”

     “Of course not, Meenu.” Her mother sighed. “What I’m trying to say is… you have no reason to feel like you’ve been lied too… because I know he cares for you. He really does.”

     Meenu swallowed hard.

     Yes, maybe that was true… but…

     “But he still killed all those people.” Meenu stated.

     Meenu’s mother sighed.

     “Why would he do that? So many lives were destroyed that night–”

     “There has to be an explanation for it. There has to be a reason for it. And people have been trying for years to figure it out… But whatever the reason was, Avaryn hid it very well.” Her mother responded. “And maybe… the only way you’ll ever find out is if you ask him.”

     Meenu finally looked at her mother.

     “He may not have lied to you about loving you… but for all the other lies, whether it was for your protection or not, I believe he owes you an explanation.”

     “So you want me to ask him why he did this?”

     “I don’t want you to ask him anything. I just want you to hear him out. Because I know that you loved him. And people shouldn’t just give up on love simply because of what others say about it. Hear him out. Judge him yourself. And make the right decision according to your heart.”

     And it was then that Meenu realized what she had done.

     Her mother stood up, kissed her daughter’s forehead and left the room, and though Meenu felt better, she also felt worse.

     Because the one thing that Avaryn asked her to do was to give him a chance. To judge him from what she knew of him. What she knew for sure.

     And what she knew for sure was simple... at least, it was now.

     He had always made her happy.

     He protected her since she was a child.

     He accepted her when most people didn’t.

     She stared at the rose, feeling her eyes water. She thought back to that night, the night he left and the night that she forgot him.

     “It’s a special rose.” He said to her. “So long as I love you, it will never whither.”

     It never withered. For all these years, it stayed as red as blood and as soft as a flower could be.

     He loved her.

     She knew that.

     Panic grew inside her as she realized that she had made a big mistake.

     She should never have doubted him.

     And now, she had to find him.

     She put the rose back in it’s vase. The same vase that it sat in for the past eight years. Then she ran as fast as she could to find Blood.

     And of course, Knight followed closely behind.

     Blood didn’t need to search hard to know where his evil was. Because as Master Red had said, he was still connected to it.

     He found himself in the same forest that he escaped to eight years ago. The forest that he ran to after saying his goodbyes to Meenu. After killing all those people.

     It was here that he ripped out what made him a Lumynos.

     It was a dense forest and barely any moonlight was let in through the trees. But that didn’t matter to him, he could see clearly.

     And as he stepped past the trees and into a small area where everything had been cleared, his shoulders tensed.

     He could still smell the burning as he looked around, and he shuddered when he was reminded of the pain he felt when he ripped his evil out.

     The pain… and the fire. The fire that cleared out an area that was big enough to fit a couple homes.         

     And in eight years, nothing grew there.

     Not even grass.

     But then, all of those thoughts left his mind as he froze in his tracks.

     Right at the center of the cleared out forest, stood his evil.

     It’s back was towards him, wearing the same cloak that he wore the night he left.

     I knew you would come back. It suddenly said.

     Its voice was deep. Deeper than Blood’s.

     But Blood knew that that was his voice. His real voice.

     You are here sooner than I expected though. It said. Everything is happening sooner than I expected.

     Blood took a breath and stepped closer.

     She was here too. It continued. It then lifted its arm up and pointed at a tree off in the distance. She sat there. She came to me in a dream. She thought it was Feyran but your master’s spell sent her here.

     When Blood didn’t say anything, the evil turned around, watching Blood walk closer to it.

     It looked just like Blood.

     He felt like he was looking into a mirror, and for some reason, that made this all a lot easier for him.

      I’m pleased to know that you’ve realized parting with me was a mistake.

     “I apologize.” Blood said, as he stopped walking. He stood right in front of it, looking it straight in the eye. “But if what Master Red said is the truth, that means I’m simply apologizing to myself.”

     The evil smiled. Sometimes it is necessary to apologize to yourself.

     Blood let out a small laugh. “I never realized I was so forgiving.”

     The smile remained on what was supposed to be the darkest creature in the entire realm. Are you prepared to finally return to being Avaryn, the son of Kyryn, the Prince of Raffyre and the Leader of the Lumynos Clan?

     Blood nodded.

     Without a single hesitation, the evil stepped forward, into Blood.

     Red lights brightened the night sky and people in nearby villages ran out of their homes to try and figure out what it was.

     But by the time they could think anything, the lights disappeared from the skies.

     Avaryn straightened himself up, feeling more complete than he had ever felt. And when he opened his eyes, anyone would have said that the lights in the skies had not vanished completely. Instead, they appeared in his eyes as they shined brightly for the first time in years.

     Seliaryn paced back and forth as the King tapped his finger on his desk. It annoyed Seliaryn so much that Dukaryn didn’t seem to be the slightest bit worried.

     It was a failure.

     Everything was a failure.

     Plus, Seliaryn could sense the coming dangers.

     And the coming dangers included Seliaryn’s angry father.

     When Lord Roviaryn entered the Kings’ chambers, he had a hard glare on his face. “What have you done?” He asked Dukaryn, ignoring his bowing son.

     Dukaryn didn’t respond.

     Seliaryn held back a shudder as he felt his angry father’s rage.

     “The country is in an uproar,” he said, voice deep. “You called up a battle against your own people and lost.”

     It always surprised Seliaryn to see how calm his father’s voice was, even when he was furious.

     But maybe that was what made everyone fear him.   

     You never knew when Lord Roviaryn would attack.

     Of course, Seliaryn knew. This man was the one who raised him, after all.

     But what didn’t surprise Seliaryn was that his father sounded like he knew this was going to happen. He remembered what his father told him before the battle…  and he realized that his father knew all along.

     “The King is a fool and he is going to lose.” Seliaryn remembered his father say. “Unless you take over and make things right.”

     Now, it was clear to Seliaryn that he too had failed.

     He could not take over and make things right.

     “I didn’t lose.” Dukaryn responded, stubborn as always.

     Lord Roviaryn chose to ignore that. “And on top of losing, you were made a fool of.”

     Seliaryn felt his father’s eyes fall on him for a moment, but then he looked back at the King. “The woman you were supposed to wed has made a fool of you,” Lord Roviaryn said. “I warned you about the girl. I told you that the fiancée of Avaryn was a horrible idea.”

     Dukaryn was getting angry.

     “But that is not even half of the reason why the country is in panic,” the Lord continued. “You’ve brought back Avaryn.”

     “I didn’t­–”

     “Do not argue with me,” Lord Roviaryn hissed.

     Seliaryn jumped at the booming of his voice and even the stubborn Dukaryn suddenly looked small.          

     “You are as much of a fool as your father was,” the Lord glared as he said it. “This is the last thing that the Lumynos need. You have failed as a king and as a Lumynos. Your irrational thinking, arrogance, ignorance and pride has landed you in your grave.”

     “What…” Dukaryn stood up. “How dare you!”

     “Avaryn is going to kill you, Dukaryn,” the Lord said bluntly. “You can die a fool and try to challenge him, or you can be wise and do what he said to do. Call up an army and hide behind these walls.”

     Dukaryn scoffed.

     “But either way, have your will ready.”

     Seliaryn’s eyes widened as he watched his father turn around and leave the room.

     He looked at Dukaryn, whose face was turning as red as his eyes, and then back at his father.

     And after a moment of contemplation, he ran after his father.

     “Father!” He called.

     The man stopped walking and turned to face his son.

     “You cannot speak like that to the King.”

     “I am only stating the truth and you know it,” the Lord said to his son. “We can try to protect him but we will fail.”

     “Avaryn can’t be as strong as you think he is,” Seliaryn argued. “Against the entire Lumynos army­–”

     “Do you really, really think that the Lumynos army is going to pick Dukaryn over Avaryn?”

     Seliaryn was taken aback by the question.

     “Dukaryn has made mistake after mistake. His reign has been a disaster. And he is the son of a fool. Then there is Avaryn. Not only is he powerful but he is the son of Kyryn,” The Lord said. “The Lumynos care not of what Avaryn did to the hundreds of people eight years ago. All they want is someone who can keep a hold of Raffyre with an iron fist. And Avaryn is clearly the better option.”

     “You’re saying that they might put him on the throne?”

     “In their minds, Avaryn has returned, so Dukaryn has lost his claim to the throne. So they will. They will replace him with Avaryn,” Lord Roviaryn said. “Unless they find a better option.”

     Seliaryn scoffed. “They’d be fools–”

     “Not exactly,” the Lord said. “The King of the Lumynos must be the most powerful of them all. We all know that Dukaryn is not the most powerful and that he is only King because of blood. It would be ideal for our family that Dukaryn were replaced… but the family has only chosen Avaryn because he has a claim to the throne.”

     Seliaryn narrowed his red eyes. “So?”

     “All the family is saying now is that the one who kills Dukaryn will be King,” the Lord said, clearly. “Right now, we know that Avaryn will kill him, unless he is stopped.”

     “We must stop him.”

     “I believe the only way to stop him is to use the Kyrus girl. Avaryn still loves her. That has been made clear,” the Lord started. “The best chance we have against him is to use the girl.”

     Seliaryn’s shoulders dropped. “What… no,” he said. “We can’t get her involved.”

     Lord Roviaryn looked at his son, his gaze as deep and frightening as ever. “There is no point trying to protect her, Seliaryn,” The man said. “Her fate was sealed the second she was pulled into the affairs of this family.”

     “That’s not–”

     “We both know that if Dukaryn lives, he will kill her,” the Lord continued. “And right now, the family will do anything to get Avaryn to kill Dukaryn, even if it means using the girl. She will die. And without a hesitation, they would kill you too if they had to. That is what our family is like. You should know that well.”

     Seliaryn swallowed hard.

     The Lord turned and began to walk away. “Kyryn should have thought more deeply about the engagement. He may have been more of a fool than we give him credit for.”

     The knight looked away as he felt helplessness fill him.

     Everything was going wrong.

     Absolutely everything.

     And for some reason, Seliaryn felt as if everything was being thrown onto his shoulders.