Michael's POV

"Complete regret of the mistake will release anyone of their burdens and curses--" I read.

"Bull-shit," I grumbled, tossing the book off the side of my desk.

I leaned forward and ran a hand over my face. This was ridiculous. There was absolutely nothing on how to get rid of curses, specifically, the curse put on my family.

I had observed Caley and Trey during the holidays and the two were closer than ever. At the rate their relationship was proceeding, it was obvious that the two were dreadfully in love. And because they were in love, something bad was bound to destroy their happiness. And I couldn't let that happen. Not to Caley.

I had researched almost all the books I could find about removing curses. I came across healing potions of varying strengths and spells of different accuracies. But this curse was an ancient one. It's counter would not be found in just any old library book. It was most likely hidden somewhere, waiting to be found by the world but only when it was too late.

Or maybe it was completely obvious and I wasn't paying enough attention.

It was infuriating, to say the least. My daughter had a terrible fate awaiting her, just as I had, and I couldn't do anything about it. I could try and tear the two lovers apart, but I knew that I couldn't do that. I saw the look in their eyes when they looked at each other. It was the same look Katerina and I shared on countless occasions.

One of the worst parts about the curse was that I had no idea what would happen to her. Would she die a sudden death? Would she fall irrevocably ill? Would some other person come between them?

By not knowing, I couldn't even prevent anything from happening to her. I couldn't save her.

I sighed and stared out at the grey mid-January day outside.

It seemed like I could never save her.

I spent all my life hiding in the shadows of her life. She had no idea I was present all those years, present but hidden. I had to stay away. Katerina said that would be best for her. But I knew that she had only said that because of the incredible pain it put me through seeing her in her condition. I stood helplessly by as my wife, my one true love, slowly and painfully died.

I pulled open the top drawer and pushed aside a few papers, pulling out the picture of Katerina that I had kept.

"What am I supposed to do, Katerina? You told me to keep her uninvolved with the War and now she's a part of the Order. Now that she knows, there's no shutting her out. And she's only just begun to change her attitude towards me. I think she's finally starting to forgive me, Katerina. She's finally coming around. I just had to be patient. I guess you were right," I said to the picture of the beautiful woman. "You were always right," I whispered.

I looked out at the grey sky from my window. Times were tough now, but they were only going to get worse.

                                                                End of Michael's POV

"So how was your break?" Abbey asked me.

We had all finally settled back in after the holidays and were now sitting around in the common area inside our dorm building.

"It was fine," I replied.

"Oh, really? I wouldn't have known," she said. And then, out of nowhere, she smacked my arm. I let out a shout of pain and glared at that.

"What was that for?!" I yelled.

"You didn't call me at all! Not once during the entire four weeks!" she said. I glared at her and mumbled obscenities under my breath. "You're the worst friend in the world," she added.

"Oh, hush up. Stop being so dramatic. I was a little preoccupied with other things," I said.

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" she asked.

"None of your business," I spat. She glared at me.

"Fine! Don't tell me. I'll just ask Trey," she said.

"Go ahead," I replied sourly. She raised an eyebrow at me, noting my dark tone.

"Trouble in la-la land?" she asked.

"No one says la-la land anymore, Abbey," I said, trying to change the subject.

"You and Trey got into a fight!" she exclaimed, pointing a finger at me. I rolled my eyes at her and crossed my arms over my chest, not saying anything.

The truth was, she was right. But only kind of. We weren't exactly fighting at the moment, Trey and I. It was more like we weren't speaking to each other. Mostly this was my choice, because I was still angry with him for not telling me he was in the Order. I knew I shouldn't have been, since I was keeping secrets myself, but this was different. This was Trey.

Trey was an inherently good person. He was sweet and friendly and kind. I didn't take him for someone that would keep secrets. Me? I was supposedly full of darkness, something I had inherited from my mother. Lying and keeping secrets was a part of my nature. And when I thought about it, I had always been like that. I never liked telling people things. I was always the girl that kept to herself and kept her mouth shut. I was never the girl that told the world everything about her. So why start now?

I knew it was wrong of me to think that way, but the more I thought about it, the more my explanation seemed to fit. And the farther it was pushing me from Trey.

I sighed.

"Did you start it or did he?" Abbey asked.

"I honestly don't want to talk about this," I said.

"Touchy, touchy," Abbey mumbled. I shook my head at her and stood up. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"To find some less annoying people," I answered. She frowned, offended.

"Someone definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," Abbey said.

"And someone definitely took an extra dose of annoying today," I retorted. She glared at me and I stuck my tongue out at her before stalking out of the common area.

I made my way outside into the cold mid-January air, pulling the sleeves of my sweatshirt over my hands. It was dark out now and the sky was cloudy. Snow covered the ground here and the atmosphere was quiet. Everyone was inside, safe in the warmth and comfort. But I was tired of that.

The frozen snow crunched under my feet as I walked to the outskirts of the school. I went towards the woods and then entered into the darkness.

"Lumina," I mumbled. A tiny orb of light appeared in front of me, lighting my way as I wandered into the depths of the forest.

I had never ventured this far off campus before. Whenever I went to transport to Elijah's mansion for training, I always went to the outer gates of the school. I had never really gone through the woods. As I traveled farther and farther into the depths of the forest, I realized why students were banned from going into it.

The inside of the forest was nearly pitch black. If it weren't for the orb of light I had conjured up, I would have been blind in the darkness. Tree branches jutted out at odd angles, poking me in the side of the head or in my arms when I wasn't paying attention. The tree roots were gnarly and large and stuck up from the ground, hidden beneath layers of leaves and forest residue. The strange part about the forest, though, was that this deep into it, it was oddly quiet. I could no longer hear the animal sounds that I could hear in the first half of the forest. I could hear no animals, no forest critters. I found this strange. This deep into the forest, I was sure I would have run into some kind of wild beast.

I realized as I walked deeper into the forest that I should maybe turn around and find my way back to TUM. Just as I thought this, though, I saw the tiny flicker of firelight coming from far ahead. It wasn't from the light that I had conjured up, because my orb emitted a blue color. The light I was seeing was definitely from a fire.

As I drew closer, I realized it was coming from the window of a rather small cabin. I stopped and stared at it for a moment. My common sense was telling me to turn right around and get out of there. But there was a tiny gnawing feeling at the back of my neck telling me to continue forward. And I--being me--decided to listen to the gnawing feeling. So I walked forward and up to the house that was so eerily located in the depths of the forest.

"Lumina non," I muttered before reaching the door to the cabin. I stood at the door, going over a list of spells I could possibly use in case whoever was inside turned out to be an evil witch or wizard. Just as I was about to knock on the door, it opened of it's own accord.

Oh, shit! Run!

But I stayed rooted to where I was standing.

In front of me stood a shadowy figure. The light from the fire didn't quite reach the entrance and the person in front of me was hidden in the shadows. I could make out their height and approxiamate weight and deduced that this person could definitely take me in a physical fight. But then again, on occasion, I had managed to ground Gerrard. Maybe I could take this person, too.

But then my eyes landed on what the person was holding. It looked to be a cane or a staff of some sort. At the top of it was a sphere shaped orb. Maybe this person was a cripple.

I jumped when the person banged the staff of the wooden floor of the cabin. A swirling red, purple, blue, green, white and yellow light appeared in the center of the orb, illuminating the carrier's face and mine. I nearly screamed in fright when I saw the person's face.

The man had long white hair and a salt and pepper beard to match. His face was aged and wrinkly. His eyes seemed to have lost their light, as they were set staring and colorless at me. But what made this man frightening were the gashes on his right cheek. They looked almost like claw marks, but I knew that they were done magically. No animal would could be that clean cut.

"Caley Lucia," the man said.

I felt my heart stop. This man knew who I was.

I couldn't bring myself to respond to him, my mouth hanging open dumbly.

"Come inside," he said. Without another word, he walked slowly back inside towards where the fire was. I started to step inside, when my common sense went into overdrive.

Are you mental?! You're going to go in there?! You have no idea who this guy is and if he's dangerous or not!

Well, I'm going to have to find out. And I won't be able to do that unless I go inside.

You're screwed!

We'll see.

I stepped inside all the way, shutting the door behind me. It was nice and warm inside and swirling in the air were different smells that I couldn't quite place. The man was seated near the fireplace on a faded, ancient looking seat that looked like it was once a rich, red velvet.

"Sit," the man said, nodding at an identical seat that was next to the fireplace.

His voice was deep and resonating and although I was frightened beyond anything, when he spoke, I felt a calmness wash over me. I sensed that back in the day, when he was younger, he must have held a great aura of leadership.

"W-who are you?" I asked.

"Would you like something to drink?" the man questioned. His hollow eyes stared at me, but I knew he couldn't actually see me. He had the eyes of a blind man.

"I'm fine," I said. The man put his staff in front of him. The orb's light was out, now, and he rested his hands on top of the it, crossing his skinny and gnarly fingers together.

"I am Mikael Gemeni," he said after a few moments. Gemeni?

"Gemeni? As in, Gemini? Like twins?" I asked.

"Have you heard of me, then?" he questioned. I shook my head.

"Of course not. I'm supposed to be dead," he said. I felt my eyes widen.

"Umm..." was what came out of my mouth. The man chuckled deeply.

"You should drink something," he said.

"I'm not thirsty," I replied. He stared at me with those eyes of his that sent chills down my back.

"Very well, then," he said. "I am Mikael Gemeni. My brother was Leonardo Gemeni. Before he was killed, we were the Gemeni Twins, or more commonly known as, The Twins," he explained.

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" I asked, trying to rack my brains. Had I ever heard anyone mention twins before? They must have been important if he was saying that they were well known.

My eyes shot open.

The Twins.

"You know, the main reason I joined you was because I wanted to find a way to break the curse that's on our family," I said to Elijah as we walked the grounds outside of his mansion.

"That's precisely why your mother joined," Elijah answered.

"So, how far did she get?" I asked.

"I told you that. She found out what it was a curse of. She couldn't quite figure out how to counter it, though," he replied.

"I want to see what she had," I said. Elijah looked at me warily and then sighed.

"Very well. Follow me," he said.

I followed him out to a small shed-like building that was in the backyard of the mansion. He tapped the lock with a silver stick like the one Gerrard carried. I still was not given a silver stick. Elijah pushed open the door and muttered a spell to turn the lights on.

The place was dark and musty. It smelled like it hadn't been used in quite some time. There were spiderwebs hanging from the lights on the ceiling and from the corners of the walls. Dust covered every surface visible. But that wasn't what caught my attention.

All around me were books and pieces of faded papers. There was a board with writing on it that seemed to have smudged over time. I walked around and picked up a heavy leatherbound book. I blew the dust off and sneezed. Then I looked at the title.

The Originals: An Account of the First Magic Users

"This was where your mother used to do her research," Elijah said, looking around the room.

"These are all hers?" I asked him. He nodded.

"After every training session she had, she would come in here for a few hours to read or make potions or write down spells. She was determined to break the curse on our family," he said.

My heart clenched slightly as I gazed at the work my mother had left behind, unfinished. She had worked so hard. She loved my father so much that she spent all this time trying to break the curse off of his family.  And he just stood by, completely useless and uncaring.

"Did you ever try to help her?" I asked.

"I tried. Sometimes I would sit in here and help her sift through books. None of it made any sense to me. Everything we tried, every potion we made, every string of spells we tried to put together, nothing worked. It was so much time wasted," Elijah replied.

"She must have gotten somewhere if she was working on it for so long," I said.

"It's difficult to tell. She fell ill before she could complete her work. I came in here after I found out she passed away. I couldn't make sense of any of it," he said.

I picked up a piece of paper and brushed the dust off of it. It had different shapes drawn on it in different colors.  There were arrows drawn all around, connecting the different shapes and then at the bottom of the page, they led to two words.

The Twins.

"Did you know my mother?" I asked Mikael.

"Katerina? I never had the pleasure to meet her one-on-one. She tried to contact my brother and I, but then the battle broke out," he said. "She killed my brother," he added. I frowned.

"Accidentally?" I asked.

"Hard to tell. She was under orders, you see," he replied.

"From?" I asked.

"The leader of the dark side at the time," he answered.

"My mother was a good person," I said.

"She had good intentions," he said simply.

"Why are you supposed to be dead?" I asked. He chuckled.

"When my brother died, as it should have happened, I should have died, as well. Funnily enough, I survived," he replied.

"How?" I asked.

"Magic," he said, the light from the fire flickering in his dim eyes. I glared at him and rubbed my forehead with my knuckles. This man was senile. He wasn't going to give me any answers.

"What kind of magic?" I asked.

"The ancient kind. A form that has been long lost over time," he answered.

He was answering my questions, but in the worst way possible: by not giving me any useful information.

"You aren't making any sense," I growled.

"But what have I said that is confusing? I have answered all of your questions," he replied.

"You haven't given me anything!" I exclaimed. He raised his eyebrows at me. I sighed in frustration and then tried to calm myself down. I held onto my necklace and felt the stone's powers work their magic on me. Once I was relaxed, I looked up again.

"How do you know who I am?" I asked.

"Should I not know the daughter of the woman who saved my life?" he asked. I furrowed my brows.

"My mother saved your life?" I asked.

"And the daughter of the man who was my brightest disciple?" he replied.

"You were my father's teacher?" I asked incredulously. He nodded. I sat back in the old chair, my mind swirling with this newfound information.

"So my mother killed your brother, but saved you. And you were my father's teacher," I said. He nodded his head. "But you said that you were saved by an ancient form of magic. And if my mother saved you, then that means she used that ancient magic," I said, piecing together everything he had told me.

"Are you sure you don't want anything to drink?" he asked me.

"Quit it with the drinks!" I snapped. He sat back, taken by my outburst. I groaned.

"Sorry. I'm just..." I trailed off.

"On edge," he replied. I nodded. "Precisely all the more reason to take a drink," he said. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Why did she save you and not your brother?" I asked. He shrugged, a small smile at his lips. He knew something and he wasn't telling me. I felt irritation well up inside of me before I clutched my necklace again.

"I think I'll have a drink," I said.

"Excellent," he replied, standing up. He walked out of the sitting area and after a few minutes, came back with a glass full of a glowing blue-ish liquid. He handed it to me. The glass was cool to the touch, but there was no condensation on the glass. Magic really was a funny thing.

"What is this?" I asked, sniffing the drink. I scrunched my nose up in disgust. It smelled like aloe vera and ethanol.

"Just drink it. You'll feel better," he replied, taking his seat again.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and brought the glass up to my lips. The liquid was cool and seared the back of my throat, making it tickle. I felt like I was swallowing liquid vapor rub. I could feel like the liquid travel down my throat and into the pit of my stomach. Once it did, I felt my mind clear up and my irritation disappear.

"What is this stuff?" I asked, my soul feeling light and airy.

"It helps to clear the mind," he answered. I downed the rest of the glass and set it on the table in front of me.

"So why did my mother save you and kill your brother?" I asked.

"That is something only she would be able to answer," he replied.

"She's dead," I said bluntly.

"So unfortunate," he said, shaking his head. I glared at him.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to his staff.

"I am an old man, Caley. This is my walking staff," he answered.

"What's in the orb?" I questioned.

"The light that was once in my eyes," he replied. I frowned.

"So it...it contains your sight?" I asked.

"You could say that," he responded.