"Wonder what this meeting is about. It sounded urgent," Trey said from next to me.

We were sitting in my father's office. My father had called an emergency meeting for the Order. Trey and I had been sitting in the student lounge with Abbey and Lance when we were called. It had been difficult to get away from the two. We made the excuse that we were tired of doing homework and just wanted to take a walk alone. Obviously, instead of taking a walk, we went to my father's office.

All of the necessary members were present: my father, John Blackwood (the President of the Trinity Government), Natalia and Christopher (Trey's parents), Syllvia (the owner of Syllvia's restaraunt), and a few other key members. Trey and I were sitting next to each other. He had his arm around my waist and I was leaning slightly against him. I was still a little weak from the battle at the Trinity Government two days ago. I hadn't fully recovered from it just yet. It had taken an incredibly toll on my magical energy, which made me realize that I was in no way ready for a full on battle.

I noticed that a key member was missing and that was Peter Long, assistant to John Blackwood. It was obvious that others in the room had also noticed this and were probably wondering where on earth he was. Long was usually one of the first people to show up for these meetings, as he always had the most information to provide. I was sure that only I knew of his current location and that this emergency meeting my father had called was to be about what had happened at the Government building in Rome two days ago.

I was a bit surprised, actually, that the meeting hadn't been called earlier. I thought for sure that my father would have found out immediately that one of the most important members of the Order of the Light had been missing and that the Government building had been infiltrated. I myself hadn't spoken to Elijah since he told me to get the hell out of his sight after I almost killed Long, so I didn't really know what sort of damage control he was initiating.

 My father's expression was grim as he called attention to the people in the room. Everyone quieted down immediately and turned their full attention to my father.

"I have bad news," he said. Everyone exchanged worried glances. This was not a pleasant way to start off the meeting. "Peter Long and his family have gone missing," my father informed us. I felt Trey's arm around me stiffen. I tried my best to remain calm and take on an expression of mild alarm.

"No!" Natalia cried.

"How can that be?" Christopher asked.

"I'll let our President answer that," my father said, looking glumly at John Blackwood. Blackwood took this opportunity to stand up at the head of the table, where my father usually sat.

"The Government building was infiltrated by the other side. They broke into the Department of Ancient Spells. Their intention, as we now have come to know, was to steal the truth spell Long was working on uncovering," Blackwood explained.

"At the time of infiltration, Long had been working late in the Department. He had contacted me when he heard the disturbance and told me that he had figured out the spell. said that he would try to escape, but there was probably zero to little chance he'd make it out. He was right. He was captured," Blackwood continued.

"What happened to the spell?" Natasha, my father's Russian secretary, asked.

"We found the destroyed tablet in the Department. It was destroyed beyond magical repair. But since Long had been working on deciphering it, we know he has it in his mind. That's how we know he's still alive," Blackwood replied.

"So we don't have the spell anymore?" Syllvia asked.

"We do," Blackwood answered.

My back stiffened.

"When Long contacted me, he told me the spell," Blackwood said.

"So then all is not lost?" Natalia asked.

"Wrong. There really is no point in us having the spell now," Blackwood said.

"What do you mean?" David, father of the attractive Fernandez, asked.

"Because they have successfully taken out our best man. We only needed the spell to find out if they had infiltrated the Government and after their invasion, it's obvious that they have. There is an inside man working in a position of power and we are fairly certain we know who it is," Blackwood answered.

"That Nichols man?" Trey asked. Blackwood nodded.

"So why not take him down?" Syllvia questioned.

"I don't think you understand. With Long gone, they have full access to the Government now. They can do whatever they want," Blackwood said.

"You're still President, though," Natalia pointed out.

"And with the upcoming elections, without Long, I won't be," Blackwood said.

"Why are you giving up so easily?" Trey asked, sounding angry.

"I'm not giving up! I'm accepting the truth!" Blackwood hissed, glaring at Trey.

"Trey's right. We can't give up just yet," my father said, finally speaking.

"We've lost it all, though!" Blackwood exclaimed.

"We haven't," my father said, standing up from his position where he was sitting. "This is exactly why we always lose. We give up so easily. We lose faith, hope, and then think that we can't do it. Us surrendering the Government so easily makes us look weak. We need to put up a strong front, a united front. We can't go down without a fight," my father said.

"What happens if we lose?" I asked, my voice quiet. I didn't look up. I stared at my hands. Trey removed his arm from around me.

"The Government or the war?" my father asked. I could hear the edge in his voice and I could tell the others weren't happy about my negativity after my father's uplifting words.

"The Government," I clarified.

"Then we'll think of another way to stay united," my father replied.

"And that would be?" I questioned.

"We'll figure it out when the time comes," my father said.

"Won't that be too late?" I asked. "Shouldn't you have a back-up plan? If you ask me, this all seems pretty disorganized," I said.

"Keep quiet, silly girl," Blackwood hissed at me.

"No, let her continue," my father said, looking right at me. "How is this disorganized?" he questioned.

"Well, if you look at what they're doing, they seem to have a plan in mind. If what we think is true--that Nichols really is an imposter--that means that all along, they've been planning on taking over the Government. And from there, they'll probably try to take control over the rest of the magical community," I said. "They clearly have a step-by-step plan for what they're trying to do. We keep saying that we'll get to it when the time comes. Maybe it's best if we make sure we have a plan for when that time comes. Just in case. Because to me, what that sounds like is you don't want to face the fact that things might not go our way. Denial and ignorance aren't going to help you win the war," I explained.

Everyone was silent as they took into consideration my words.

"She's right," Trey said, breaking the silence.

He looked at my father, who was still looking at me. He had a curious expression on his face and I wondered if I had said too much. I should have just stuck to what Elijah had told me and kept my mouth shut during these meetings; just listen instead of shooting my mouth off like I usually did.

"She is right," my father agreed slowly. "We are disorganized. We do need to plan. Long was always good for that and now that he's missing, we need to step up our game," my father said.

"So what are we going to do?" Christopher asked.

"We're going to fight to keep the Government under our control. Blackwood, you need to make sure you win as many votes as possible in the upcoming election. If Nichols wins, then we've lost the one thing that gives us access to the global magical community," my father said.

"How will I go about doing that? The only reason I was voted in the first place was because I was making Long my under secretary. Now that he's gone, I have very little chance of winning," Blackwood said.

"Then make people like you. Campaign for yourself. Make yourself seem desirable. They may have the element of forceful voting, but they can't force the entire magical community to vote for Nichols," my father said.

"All right, but what if it doesn't work? Like Caley said?" Natalia asked.

"I need time to think," my father said.

"What about Long and his family? What are we going to do about them?" Kareena asked.

"Considering Long's status and amount of power, I think they'll keep him alive. Right now, that's all we can hope for. Long is smart. He can fend for himself. Now that he's in their captivity, he's not posing a threat to them. They won't hurt him or his family. Spilling magical blood is not something that they favor, as brutal and corrupt as they are," my father replied.

I fought a nod. Elijah had told me those exact words when I asked him about Roberta Isles and if he was going to kill her. He had said that the less magical blood spilled during this war, the better, since the people themselves weren't wrong, it was just their ideology. There was no point in trying to kill off our kind for no reason. But at the same time, if someone severely crossed his path, he wouldn't stop and think twice about the value of their life.

"Does anyone else have any questions?" my father asked, getting ready to close the meeting.

"I do," Trey said, leaning forward onto the table slightly.

"Yes?" my father said.

"How is it that their side found out about the spell in the first place? I thought it was under high security and extremely private," Trey asked.

I felt my back stiffen further and was glad that Trey had created a little distance between us. I felt a bead of sweat form on my forehead as my nerves began to lose control. I casually lifted my hand to push my hair back and wiped the perspiration off my forehead. Remain calm, Caley.

"I suppose Long had a few people working with him to decipher it. He couldn't have done it all on his own. If the Nichols in post is indeed an imposter, he most likely forced one of those people to tell him," my father replied.

"I feel like Long would have taken measures to prevent that from happening though," Trey said.

"Well, the only other people who knew about that spell was everyone in this room and I'm sure none of us leaked the information," Natalia told her son.

"Are you so sure?" Blackwood sneered, looking directly at me. I clenched my hands into fists and glared furiously at him.

"We've been over this. Caley is not her mother," Syllvia said, a hint of irritation in her voice. I felt guilt creep up the back of my neck. Everyone had so much faith in me. They had no idea that Blackwood was right, though. I am just like my mother. Our destinies were the same.

Blackwood grunted in response.

"If that's settled, you can all go back now," my father said, diffusing the tension. Everyone else muttered in response and chairs were pushed back as everyone made to leave.

I got up to leave, too. Trey took my hand in his and we walked out of my father's office together. As we walked back to the dorm buildings, my mind was filled with thoughts of the end of the year. Finals week was just on the horizon, which meant that my freshman year at Trinity University of Magic was coming to an end. I was just a week and a half away from becoming a sophomore at TUM. This meant that for nearly two years now, I had known how to do magic. And in those two years, I had learned more than I thought I could imagine.

What frightened me about freshman year coming to an end was that I had no idea what my future held in store for me. I was considering seriously now studying abroad. I still had yet to discuss this plan with Gerrard, but I knew that staying here at TUM wasn't an option for me for the upcoming year. I wouldn't be able to do the job that was left for me by my mother while I was here.

I looked at Trey, whose warm hand filled me with comfort. The electrical tension that had always built up around us when were together was so familiar now. How would I go a whole semester--and possibly a whole year--without him? Even though I wasn't telling him everything about who I was and what I was up to, I knew I needed him. He was the one thing in my life that made any sense. I knew that I couldn't imagine a future without him, but if I were to stay here, then that option was becoming more and more real. If I didn't find the counter to the curse on my family line, then that meant I had no future with Trey. Something bad would happen to us and we would be torn apart. And I couldn't lose him.

Trey looked down at me and smiled.

"Are you all right?" he asked me. I nodded, looking away from him. "Are you sure? You've been so quiet these past few days," he said.

"I just have a lot on my mind," I said.

"Look, Caley, I know you like to keep to yourself, but if you need to talk about what you read in your mother's letter, I'm here to listen," he told me. I shook my head.

"I know you are. It's just..." I trailed off. "It's just that whatever was in that letter was for me to read and for me to read only. Whatever was in it is too complicated for you to know," I said. I saw a look of hurt flash through his eyes, which only hurt me. I hated not being able to let him in.

I stopped and reached out, placing my fingers on his cheeks. He put his hands over mine, gently caressing the back of my hands with his thumbs.

"Trey, I love you so much," I said to him, feeling my eyes well up with tears.

Trey's hands moved to brush the tears that escaped from my eyes onto my cheeks.

"Hey. Don't cry," he said softly, pulling me into an embrace. "I know you love me. What's wrong?" he asked. I shook my head and cried softly into his chest.

"Trey, I'm not going to be here next year," I said, pulling away and sniffling.

"What?" he asked, completely dumbfounded.

In that moment, I had made my decision. I was going to go abroad next year. I was going to get away. I needed to find the counter. I needed to save us.

I wiped the tears off my face with the back of my hand.

"I'm going to study abroad next semester," I said.

"Where did this come from?" he asked.

"I've been thinking about it ever since Oralie mentioned it. I don't want to be here for another year. There's just too much going on in my life and I need to get away," I said.

"You have the summer for that, though," he said. I shook my head.

"No, I just need to be away for a while," I said. He pursed his lips, but he read the expression on my face and knew that I had made up my mind; there was no convincing me otherwise now.

"Where are you planning on going?" he asked.

"I don't know just yet," I replied. "But I have time to think about it," I added. He sighed, running a hand over his now tired face.

"Well, I guess since you've already decided, I'm going to have to accept it," he said. "I thought two months without you was torture. Now you're going to be gone for an entire semester," he said, shaking his head.

Maybe even a year.

I put my arms around him, hugging him tight.

"I love you," I whispered to him. He kissed the top of my head and hugged me close to him.

"I love you, too," he replied.

                                                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, Ger, I need to talk to you," I said to Gerrard once I got to Elijah's mansion the next week.

"About?" he asked.

"A couple things," I replied. He raised his eyebrows.

"After the meeting, then," he said. I nodded and turned my attention to Elijah, who had just walked into the room. Surprisingly enough, behind him was James Nichols.

I did a double take.

"Isaac?" I blurted out.

"Caley," he replied.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"Why don't you let Elijah start and then we'll find out?" he replied. I rolled my eyes at him and Elijah cleared his throat.

"As you can all see, Isaac is with us today. I'll get to this later, though. Caley, I need you to tell us what the reaction was of the Order when they found out Long was missing," Elijah said to me.

"Well, obviously they were peeved," I replied.

"And?" he prodded.

"And what?" I asked.

"What are they going to do about it?" he snapped, getting quickly irritated with me. I made a face at him and sat up straighter.

"Well, they aren't going to try and get him back if that's what you want to hear," I said.

"I figured my brother wouldn't want to risk any more lives just to save one," Elijah said, taking a seat at the head of the table. "What else did they say?" he asked.

"They're not giving the Government up without a fight. They're going to work on Blackwood's persona to help him win the upcoming elections. They said that if they lose the government, then they've lost their way of communication to the global magical community," I replied.

Elijah laughed, a sound that made the little hairs on my arms stick up.

"Funny that they would think that," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Isaac, why don't you explain to her why," Elijah said, sitting back.

"Because I have successfully put all of the important board members under the control spell. Even if Blackwood does win more votes, the board members are the ones that count them. Which means that I will win no matter what," Isaac said.

"And Blackwood has no idea?" Isobel asked.

"Not a clue. I was very careful," Isaac said.

"So the Government will be ours in two months?" Dom asked.

"That's the plan," Isaac said, smiling pridefully at himself.

"And that is a most excellent plan, indeed," Elijah said. I didn't think I had ever seen Elijah look so happy.

"So what are we going to do once we've got the Government?" Viktor asked.

"Enforce our own laws and ideology. Isaac will show his true colors and they won't be able to do anything about it since we will have taken the Government fair and square," Elijah answered. "Or at least as far as they know," he added with a manical laugh that only Gianna and Isaac joined in with.

"What about the Order?" I asked.

"They will try and start a revolution, no doubt. And we will obliterate them with our army," Elijah replied simply.

"And that's it?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied.

"You're making it sound so simple!" I exclaimed.

"Because it is. The difficult part will be the fight they put up, because there is no doubt that they are powerful. But in the end, we will be victorious," he said.

"But--" I started.

"That's enough," Elijah said. Immediately, I was silenced. I tried to speak, but I couldn't. I looked at Gerrard in alarm, wondering if Elijah had put a silencing spell on me. I thought the counter to it, but found that I still couldn't speak. What had happened?

"If no one has anything else to say, you all can go," Elijah said.

Everyone got up to leave. It was only after I stepped outside that I finally found my voice again.

"What the hell was that?" I asked Gerrard.

"His power over you," Gerrard replied.

"His--" I started.

"He was using your loyalty to him against you. Even if you wanted to keep talking after he silenced you, you couldn't. Because you would be disobeying orders," Gerrard explained.

"Are you kidding me?" I exclaimed.

"He said that that was how he was going to keep control of you from now on. After the Long incident, he doesn't trust you as much because he thinks you're too susceptible to losing your cool," he told me.

I stood fuming as I listened to his words.

I couldn't believe Elijah was using his power over me. Gerrard had told me that he would never initiate full control over me, that I would be free once this all was over. But I was beginning to think that that was never the case.

"This is completely unfair," I said.

"It's what you signed up for," Gerrard pointed out.

"I didn't sign up for anything," I hissed. He pursed his lips and looked away guiltily.

"Ok, well you can't do anything about it now, so there's no point in complaining," he said. I continued to glare at Gerrard for several moments before he spoke again. "All right, are you going to tell me what you needed to talk to me about or not?" he asked.

"I was going to, but now I don't think I will," I said, turning on my heel and beginning to walk away.

"Caley!" he exclaimed, grabbing my wrist and pulling me back forcefully. I crashed into his chest and nearly fell over, but he caught me before I did. At that moment, Isobel walked out of the meeting room. She stood and glared at me as she saw me in Gerrard's arms.

"Ok, this is not what you think," I said, stepping away from him.

"Why is it that I always find you in compromising positions with my boyfriend?" she asked haughtily.

"Bad timing?" I offered, shrugging. She glared at me and I shrunk into myself.

"Watch yourself, Lucia," Isobel said before stalking away. Gerrard snickered.

"She really hates you," he said. I looked at him and then slapped his arm. "I'm just stating a fact!" he exclaimed.

"I'm not telling you anything anymore," I said, starting to walk away again.

"Are we really having this argument again?" he asked, following me.

"Yes, since you insist on being--" I started, but he stopped me once again.

"On being what? The only person here that will listen to you? The only person that really knows you?" he asked.

I blinked, speechless. He knew how much he meant to me. He knew how I felt about him.

"Look, Caley. I already promised you that I was going to help you with whatever you need. You need to stop being so stubborn," he said.

I looked at him for a long moment before sighing.

"All right. But I can't tell you here," I said.

"Then let's get out of here. You choose where to go," he said.

A thought ran through my mind as I thought of exactly where I wanted to go.

"Ok, come on," I said, taking his hand and pulling him outside the manor.

I transported us when we got outside and we landed in the Forbidden Trinity Forest.

It was time to introduce Gerrard to Mikael Gemeni.

______________________________________________________________________

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I've been super busy with school and life. But hopefully this was a nice, long update that will keep you satisfied for the next week or so.

So what do you all think? Will Isaac win control over the Trinity Government or will Blackwood be victorious? Why do you think Caley is taking Gerrard to meet Mikael Gemeni (Remember him? He'll be important in this book)?

Leave me a comment below! I love reading your speculations!

And as always, vote!

XOXO