Cheryl way too shaken up to even function after seeing Daniel. She was surprised she actually managed to make it out of there without staying.

Daniel, on the other hand, had gotten his hopes up after seeing her and finding her note.

And then he remembered what he'd done- not to Cheryl, but it would annoy the hell out of her when she found out. If only he could contact his... associate. He'd call everything off.

But it was too risky. He didn't even know where that associate of his was. He just had to be patient. He had no other choice but that.

Lying on his bed that sleepless night and thinking of his wife, only made some old memories resurface... Memories that belonged to a much better past, when everything was still normal. A past before Alastor went berserk and started tearing families apart.

He remembered back when he first realised he had feelings for Cheryl. Alastor was the first person be talked to about it.

“She's pretty awesome, isn't she?”, he'd asked him one night when each of them was lying on his bed, looking at the ceiling.

“Who?”, his brother had furrowed his eyebrows.

“Cheryl.”, Daniel had smiled goofily.

“I guess so...”, Alastor had shrugged.

“Al, I think I'm in love...”, he'd confessed, but his brother didn't say anything after that.


If only he'd known back then... Maybe things would have gone differently.

Things started going bad when Cheryl's sister fell of her balcony, just a few days after Cheryl and Daniel became a couple. Beatrice never approved of their relationship but she was always too calculated to go ahead and accidentally fall of a balcony.

And then, about a couple years later, a count's daughter, Olivia, came along. She'd always been visiting at random times, but that one time she came in as a suitor for Alastor, since Daniel had already gotten engaged to Cheryl.

Olivia always had a soft spot for Alastor, but he wasn't that interested in her until they started hanging out some more. She was practically an angel and even Lux liked her.

Yeah, Lux was around for a longer time than one might expect. She and Cheryl had been at each other's throats since they were toddlers, thought it had not always been Lux's fault.

But that's not the point. Things started going terribly wrong when Daniel and Alastor were at their teen years.

Honestly? The only couple that never had relationship problems were Andy and Margaret.


°~*~°


Cheryl was thinking about Daniel again. She didn't like that.

Memories belonged to a past that seemed so long to her that it made her feel as if it had happened in another life.

“Come on! We're going to miss it!”, she'd told him once. They'd been climbing on the roof to see then sunrise; they'd stayed up all night for this.

“Slow down! I can't keep up with you!”, he'd panted. Daniel had been feeling exhausted because of that all-nighter they'd pulled.

“Dan, if you don't hurry up I'm going to make you regret it.”, she'd glared at him.

And after they'd watched it and Cheryl had rested her head on his shoulder, she'd asked him a question.

“Wasn't it worth the lack of sleep? Wasn't it beautiful?”

And Daniel had blushed when he said: “It was, because I spent all night with someone even more beautiful than the sunrise.”

And then they'd kissed for the first time, right before they returned to their rooms to sleep all day to complement for the sleep they'd lost.


°~*~°


Caroline was looking through some old stuff when she found her old rattle in the bottom of a box in her closet. She didn't know why she had the sudden urge to clean up her things, but she couldn't resist.

She reached out to pick up the rattle, but when she touched it everything blacked out and the image of a warm smile flashed before her eyes.

Mom.

She dropped the rattle back in the box and edged away from it, giving it a confused look. Hesitantly, she slowly tried to touch it again. This time nothing happened when she picked it up.

That's when Caroline decided to go find out more about her mom, and since her father never told her anything, she decided to ask Margaret who had been around the time Olivia had died.

Sighing, she went down to the gardens, where she found Margaret once again.

“Hey...”, Caroline said quietly, sitting next to her.

“Caroline! I wasn't expecting you back so soon...”, Margaret gave her a confused look.

“I was going through some old things and I came across some memories I'd forgotten and now I- now I have some questions...”, the princess looked down.

“What about?”

“My mother. I barely remember her... Every time I think of her, the only thing I see- the only thing I see is her dead body on her bed.”, Caroline shuddered.

“Oh, sweetie...”, Margaret frowned. “Your mother was an amazing person. She was even kinder than your aunt Cheryl, if you van believe that.”, she chuckled to herself.

“You knew them both?”, Caroline asked in surprise.

“Of course! We grew up together. My parents worked in the kitchens back when your grandfather was king. Cheryl and her sister were servants, doing all kinds of jobs... Such a pity Beatrice died at such a young age... She slipped and fell off her balcony.”, Margaret shook her head sadly. “Cheryl was devastated.”, she frowned.

“Oh... I didn't even know that aunt Cheryl had a sister...”, Caroline furrowed her eyebrows.

“You know, Cheryl and Olivia had a lot of things in common. They even looked alike!”, Margaret changed the subject.

This confused Caroline. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, they both had red hair and the same eye-shape--”

“My mom was blonde.”, Caroline interrupted her.

“What? No! Your mother had red hair. I remember it clearly.”, Margaret insisted.

The princess furrowed her eyebrows again. “I guess... You knew her for a longer time than I did...”, she shrugged.

But she knew that Margaret was wrong. Olivia had blond hair. Caroline could never forget. She had the picture of her mother's dead body carved in her memories forever.

But that raised even more questions. Why did Margaret think that Olivia had red hair? Why weren't there any portraits of her mom to prove it? And most of all, how the hell were the twins red-headed when their father had black hair and their mother blond?

°~*~°

Tristan was rummaging through his father's finest wines in the cellar, looking for the best bottle he could find to take in his room, when he heard footsteps. It was weird, because it was late at night, so he hid behind a barrel and held his breath.

A woman started humming and looking through the same wines Tristan himself was going through a few moments before.

“What the hell are you doing here?”, Alastor asked. Tristan didn't know where his father came from, and for a second be thought he was talking to him.

“Whatever the hell I want.”, the woman replied. It was Lux.

“Watch your tongue.”, he hissed.

“Why? You'll kill me too?”, she scoffed. Tristan stifled a gasp.

“I'm not going to kill Erebos, unless he fails to do what I told him.”

“You know he won't do well! You just did this because I don't agree with your plans! You set my step-brother up for failure.”, Lux hissed.

“What's there not to agree with? You get your revenge on Cheryl and I get mine on my brother. It's a win-win and we've already waited for too long, anyway...”, Alastor sighed.

“You want to besiege Dan's Palace to take over the other kingdom! Can't you wait a little longer? You even lost Crystal, you don't even have any leverage now.”

Leverage?!, Tristan thought. What the hell is Crystal leverage for?

“Shut up! It's not my fault the little witch got them out.”

“Violet didn't get them out and you know that. You just want to put the blame on an easy target.”

“I've had enough of this conversation. If you find any proof that my daughter did anything, come talk to me. If you don't, come apologise for your manners.”, Alastor growled and left the room.

Lux grumbled and, after a few seconds, she picked up a random bottle of wine and left the cellar.

After their footsteps died out, Tristan slowly came out of his hiding place and ran upstairs to tell his sister everything he'd witnessed, after he grabbed a bottle of wine himself.


°~*~°


Caroline had gone to bed early that night, but her sleep was restless.

She was having weird dreams again.

She was standing outside a palace she only recognised because she'd seen it in portraits. It was her uncle's palace, the one in which Daniel and her father had been spending their holidays. Alastor had forced his brother to their holiday retreat when the war started.

It was night, but the light from the palace illuminated the area just enough for Caroline to make out faces and what was going on.

She could see Crystal, Scott, her uncle and a couple of guards. She was surprised to see that Tristan was there too, and her mind started racing as she started thinking of reasons why her brother would be there.

Everyone was arguing with each other. Crystal kept shouting at Scott; Caroline had never seen her sister this furious before. Scott, trying to defend himself, was shouting at Daniel while Tristan was trying to calm Crystal down. Even though she was right next to them, she couldn't make out what they were saying. It was as if they were speaking a foreign language.

The fight was heating up more and more, when an arrow came it of nowhere and pierced Caroline's brother through the heart.


That's when she shot up in terror, to the sound of someone knocking on her door. Soaked in sweat and still panting she opened up and saw Tristan looking around anxiously.

“Tristan! What are you doing up this late?”

“We need to talk., he said and nervously rushed in the room.

“What's wrong?”, she asked again, trying to forget about her nightmare.

“Alright, so I was down in the cellars looking for something to drink--”

“You were what?!”, Caroline's eyes widened.

“Getting a drink, are you deaf?.”, he shrugged it off. “The point is that your godmother came down there and started looking for something to drink too, when dad also came out of nowhere and they had a fight.”

“What kind of fight? Did they see you?”, she sat back down on the bed worriedly.

“No, I hid. Wait, I'm getting there.”, Tristan sighed. “It was something about Lux's brother being killed. By dad.”

“What?! Sure, dad can be rough, but he'd never kill someone in cold blood!”, Caroline protested.

“There's more. Dad said that Erebos would only be executed if he failed his mission but Lux got even angrier at that.”, Tristan explained. “They also argued about some plans he has...”

“What kind of plans?”

“He's planning to besiege uncle Daniel's palace to take over the rest of the kingdom. He said something about getting revenge on his brother and Lux taking revenge on aunt Cheryl. Lux disagreed, saying something about letting Crystal run away and losing all leverage they had. Now, I don't know why Crystal would be leverage against uncle Daniel or aunt Cheryl, but it's still pretty weird.”

Caroline's eyes started twitching. “Great. Just great. Is there anything else I should know about?”
, she asked rhetorically.

“Actually... Yes. I want to go warn Crystal and uncle Daniel.”

“No!”, she exclaimed, standing up in panic. “You can't go!”

“Why not? I want to help!”

“It- It's too dangerous. You can't go.”

“I'm my own person, Caroline! I can take care of myself! Besides, people are going to die if we don't warn uncle Daniel. They need to be prepared.”, Tristan reasoned.

“We'll discuss this in the morning. Go to sleep.”, she said shakily.

“But--”

“Don't say another word! Just go to sleep, Tristan!”, she snapped. “Please.”, she whispered.

“Fine, but this isn't over.”, Tristan grumbled and left the room.


Caroline sat back down on her bed and buried her face in her palms, sighing.

What am I going to do?, she asked herself.

Trying to distract herself from what Tristan had tried to talk her into doing- because, let's be real, he'd ask for her help to cover for him- Caroline started thinking about the other things Tristan told her. She had some theories but she didn't want to believe them. They seemed too far-fetched, but also too real.

The gears in her head were spinning like crazy and she was trying to calm her racing thoughts and place the facts in order.

Olivia had been loved by almost everyone; like Margaret said, even Lux liked her. Apparently, Cheryl, Lux and Margaret had known her father and uncle since they were pretty young and since Margaret and Andy had been best friends since before they became a couple (and they became a couple in their teens), Andy had been around too.

All of them had more or less been acquainted with each other. They'd all grown up together.

But what was the deal with Lux and Cheryl? From what Caroline could make out, they were both witches and hated each other. What had Cheryl done to Lux to make her so mad at her and so full of hate? Everyone was so focused on the rift between Daniel and Alastor and ignored the fact that there was another feud going on; probably one that was even more dangerous.

Witches were powerful beings, so if Lux and Cheryl decided to take that vendetta between them to the next level, they could cause some pretty huge damage.

Also, Cheryl's sister's death seemed mysterious too. For one, Caroline didn't even know her aunt had a sister before that day. Why did no one talk about Beatrice? It seemed strange that someone that seemed so responsible would so easily slip and fall off a balcony.

And then was the fact that Alastor and Lux were going to use Crystal as leverage against her aunt and uncle. Something wasn't right there. Caroline didn't know what she was missing but she had her suspicions and hoped they wouldn't come be confirmed.

After all, her mother was blonde.



°~*~°

Violet was freezing. Winter was nearing and the weather was chilly. She was also hungry. She didn't know where Cheryl was, but she assumed she'd gone over to see Daniel.

Cheryl was all about staying away from him until things cleared up, but she and Violet both knew that she couldn't help herself.

Violet felt alone. She was roaming the woods on her own, looking for her mentor, but she also missed Tristan. Caroline too. And all the things Lux said to her... She started to have doubts on whether Lux was as bad as everyone thought she was.

That was mainly why she wanted to stay away from her. Too many doubts start to change your mind on things and Violet had formed a pretty solid image of Lux, which she didn't want to change.

After all, she'd once been in the need to give the blame to someone. Her mom wasn't just attacked.

Oh, and when she found who cursed her mother into an endless sleep- something much worse than death- well, all she was going to give them a taste of their own medicine.

And she knew exactly who had been to take her mother away from her and she knew she'd make her father curse the day he was born if she ever crossed paths with him again.