Scott and Crystal put up quite the fight, but they were highly outnumbered. Soldiers swarmed from everywhere and had them surrounded in a matter of seconds. They didn't stand a chance and with Crystal's powers neutralized every hope they might have had otherwise had evaporated.

Despite expecting to go straight to the dungeons, the guards first took them to the throne room, which was eerily empty.

And that's when King Alastor walked in the room as if he owned the place (which he did, but you know what I mean).

“Back so soon?”, he smirked.

“Not by choice.”, Crystal hissed at him.

“You're royal, Crystal. You're not entitled to having a choice.”, Alastor rolled his eyes.

“She might be royal but, above all, she's human. Everyone is entitled to a choice and an opinion.”, Scott glared at him.

“Speak when you're spoken to, peasant.”, the King sneered. Scott held his ground and gritted his teeth.

“Don't talk to him like that! Just because you're wearing a crown you stole, it doesn't mean that you're better than everhone else. As a matter of fact, it makes you worse.”, Crystal crossed her arms.

“I've had enough of you and your opinions.”, Alastor shook his head dramatically. “Take them to the dungeons. Both of them.”


The guards that brought them in, grabbed Crystal and Scott from the arms and started pulling them away.

“Wait!”, Crystal called. Her father gave her a curious look.

“What is it?”, he raised an eyebrow.

“Let Scott go. Please. He didn't do anything. You're mad at me, not him.”, she bit her lip.

“Take her. I want to talk to Mr Harrow for a while. Then, I'll let him go”, he waved his hand and the guards started dragging Crystal.

“Are you kidding me?! No!”, Scott protested, but it was too late.


Crystal wasn't really surprised that they didn't bump into anyone. Lux joined them a while later, so whenever they came across any servant, she made them forget about it.

When they arrived at the dungeons, the guards stopped in front of a cell with a table in it. It was one with straps, a belt and all that.

The soldiers pushed Crystal inside and left her alone with Lux. Crystal gulped.

The older witch, casually waved her hand again, and in a matter of seconds Crystal was strapped up on the table, which tilted in a way that she was almost standing.

“Dont try anything. These are sprinkled with the same dust as you are.”, Lux sighed.

“You don't seem happy about that.”, Crystal remarked.

“What can I say? I like fair fights.”, Lux shrugged.

“How come you work for Alastor? You do that seem like a fan of him either.”

“I've known him since I was a kid. I've known lots of people you know since then. Andy, Margaret, Benny, your aunt Cheryl and your uncle Daniel.”, the pale woman said the names with a tinge of bitterness in her voice.

“Wait- you knew Benny?!”, Crystal's eyes widened.


Just then, Alastor walked in the cell and motioned at Lux to get out. She glared at him, in a way only Crystal noticed, and did as he said.

The teenager gulped.

“Did you let Scott go?”, she asked her father.

He smirked. “Yeah.”

“So is this it? You're gonna keep me here for the rest of my life?”, she tried to sound brave but her voice was shaky.

“Not quite. You're going to be here for a short period of time.”, he muttered absent-minded as he tampered with the firelplace at the corner of the room.

Crystal furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”


Alastor stood in front of her, holding a red-hot iron. The edge of it was shaped like a T. Her eyes widened, yet again.

“Wh- what's that?”, she stuttered and tried to get out of the table.

Her father smirked. “You betrayed my hospitality when you ran away. You betrayed the crown, when you chose to become a fugitive two days later. You betrayed me, when you decided this place wasn't good enough for you, so now I'll mark you as a traitor to the kingdom.”

“No! No, no, no! Please don't--”, she didn't get the chance to finish her plead.

Alastor pressed the iron against her forearm.


*~°~*


Scott struggled against the guards as the dragged him to the dungeons, because apparently, when Alastor Cornel says he'll let someone go, it's about letting them go to the dungeons.

Scott wasn't worried about being imprisoned. He could handle that. He was more scared when he thought that Alastor would kick him out of the palace and only imprison Crystal.

He didn't say anything or resist while he was being taken away. Well, that was until a sudden scream pierced the air.

Scott's head snapped towards the direction the scream came from.

Princess, he thought. He tried to get away from the guards, but they were too many. He couldn't run away.

“Let me go! What is he doing to her?”, he yelled and kept trying to escape. The soldiers were too strong and restrained him easily.


Eventually, they lifted him from the ground because they got tired of dragging him along. He kept kicking them in order to get back on the ground but what could a teenager do against a bunch of trained soldiers in armor?

One of them opened a cell door and the rest threw Scott in. He stumbled a bit and then turned to rush at the door, just as it closed.

He kicked the bars in anger and then started pacing around the cell. He stopped abruptly, though, when he noticed a glass bottle rolling towards him on the floor. More bottles rattled a bit in the darker part of the room.

“Who's there?”, he called. There was no answer, but Scott heard someone get up from the floor.


The very moment the other person's steps started echoing in the cell, Scott froze and paled.

“No.”, he muttered and ran to the door. “Open up! Please! You can't leave me here with him! He's going to kill me!”, he yelled in panic and kept trying to get out.

“Scotty, is that a way to greet your old man?”, Carter Harrow grinned.

“Stay away from me!”, his son backed against the bars.

“I shouldn't have kicked you out.”, Carter said, his voice filled with regret as he slowly approached his estranged son. Scott's breathing quickened. “I should have kept you around and beat you up some more. You lack discipline. Insulting the King... That's not how I raised you!”, he smirked and grabbed his son by the hair, pushing him deeper into the cell.


Scott stumbled forward, yet again. He gritted his teeth and blinked back some tears. He tried to stop himself from shaking, just as his father yanked him by the collar and punched him in the face.

“Still a weakling. You never learned how to fight back.”, Carter scoffed as Scott attempted to wipe the blood running from his nose. Before he could react, his dad pushed him again- this time to the ground.


He started kicking his son again and again. Scott kept grunting and coughing up blood. He tried to cover his head.

“I've missed this.”, Carter laughed.


Scott looked up for a moment, just enough to see a weak-looking Crystal get dragged to the cell next to his. The guards carrying her left her on the floor where she passed out. She didn't seem to notice him.

Scott's vision was getting blurry. His father kept kicking him in the stomach.

That's when Alastor approached the cell.

“That would be enough, Carter. We need him alive. You can go back to kicking your son later.”

Carter kicked Scott one more time and then walked out of the cage. “Fine”, he grumbled. “I'll be back later, Scotty.”, he smirked at his son.


Take your time, Scott thought.

When Alastor and Carter's steps started fading, Scott crawled to the bars separating his cell from Crystal's.

“Princess?”, he called. She didn't move.


He was bleeding from his nose and mouth and was also pretty sure that his ribs were broken. The hard and rocky floor had scraped his elbows and thighs a bit when he fell on the ground, but that was the least of his problems.

“Princess, wake, up.”, he grunted ad he sat up and laid his back against the bars.

Crystal groaned, slowly opened her eyes and immediately clutched her forearm in pain, bringing it close to her chest. Then she looked up and was surprised to see Scott. “What are you doing here? Wh- Why are you bleeding?”, she asked, trying to hide her pain.

“Alastor lied and my dad gave me a beating.”, he said shortly.

“Your dad?! How?”, Crystal was even more surprised to hear that.

“I don't know. What happened to you?”, he panted.

“D- don't worry about it... Are you okay?”, she sat up and approached the bars.

“I'll be fine. I've had worse.”, Scott admitted.

“How much worse? How can you get any worse than this?”

“What happened to your forearm?”, he changed the subject.

“I told you not to worry about it. It- it's nothing.”, she lied.

“It didn't sound like nothing, princess.”

“You heard that?”

“I'd be surprised if your siblings upstairs didn't.”, he looked up. “Show me. I know a thing or two about scars...”, he added bitterly.

“I don't suppose you know about burn marks, do you?”, she hesitantly let him see the newly marked T on her skin. “It stands for traitor.”, she bit her lip. Scott said some pretty colorful words about Alastor.

“It looks bad. It will definitely leave a scar.”, he furrowed his eyebrows.

“I think I figured that out myself...”, Crystal sighed. “What is your father doing here?”, she frowned.

“I- I don't know. My best guess is that his royal highness hired him.”, Scott replied sarcastically.


They stayed there in silence after that.

Time passed quickly. Soon, Alastor was back with Carter. Scott subconsciously reached for Crystal's hand between the bars and she gave him a squeeze.

“Ready for round two, Scotty?”, Carter smirked. Scott didn't move from his place, nor did he reply.


The cell door slammed shut. Scott flinched and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. He didn't let go of Crystal. His father towered over him, smirking.

“Are you just going story sit there, you chicken?”, Carter shook his head. “Are you going to stand up on your own, or should get you up the hard way?”


Scott ignored him again, attempting to block him out. He held on to Crystal tighter.

“The hard way, I see.”, Carter growled, grabbing his son from the collar and picking him up.

Scott was forced to let go of Crystal, who tried to hold him back and stop his father from pulling him away. She immediately got up and clutched the bars.

“Leave him alone!”, she yelled at her friend's father. He ignored her the same way his son had ignored him a few moments before, and slammed him against a wall, holding him up by the neck.

Scott could smell the alcohol in his father's breath. He wondered hie long it had been since he'd last been sober. It had been too long.

He couldn't breathe. He desperately tried to escape his father's grasp. He kicked him again and again, trying to get himself dropped to the ground.

Eventually, he was left alone and out of breath. He panted, while his father looked down at him and smirked.

“This is getting boring...”, Carter rolled his eyes. “I'll be back tomorrow, Scotty.”, he grinned and left the cell.

Scott didn't move. He stayed right where he was, lying on the floor, and slowly closed his eyes. Crystal was crying and kept repeating that it was all her fault.

He wanted to calm her down, but he didn't have the courage to get up and cross the cell. He panted and coughed up some more blood.

He woke up a while later. Crystal was yelling at someone. He tried to see who it was, but his vision was blurry. He couldn't concentrate on what his friend was saying either because his ears were ringing, so he just stayed put.

That was until he heard a cell door unlock and creak open. At first he thought it was his, but he soon realised it was Crystal's. He slowly tried to sit up against the wall.

His vision started to clear and he could hear better by the time he noticed Crystal was fighting with her own father. He'd never seen her this furious before. He'd never seen her mad in general. It was scary.

That's when Lux came down the corridor, told Alastor to leave (who hesitantly obeyed) and gave Crystal a stern look.

After she was done glaring at the princess, she turned around, opened the door to Scott's cell and walked in. She ignored his flinch when she touched his shoulder, and then walked out.

It took took a moment for Scott to realise she had healed him.

“Special request from your father. He wants you to be in shape for tomorrow.”, Lux bit her lip and locked the door. She didn't stay long enough for him to reply, she just left.

“I'm sorry.”, Crystal told Scott a few moments later. He didn't know how to reply. It kind of was Crystal's fault that they were locked up there, but she knew she'd made a mistake and what that mistake was. She regretted making it. She was feeling guilty.

But it was not okay. It didn't make things okay.

Thats why Scott simply stated at the floor pretending he hadn't heard that. He didn't want to break her any more, but he needed to be honest with her. About that matter, anyway.

“I'm going to sleep.”, he said eventually. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight...”, she sighed and they both fell asleep immediately, despite their physical and emotional pain.


*~°~*

Caroline was afraid of going to sleep. She didn't fully understand how she found out all about Erebos the night before and how she could dream about him even though she'd never seen him before. She found it weird and it scared her.

She tried to stay up all night to think about it and avoid having such a dream again but, unlike Tristan, she was no night-owl and couldn't pull it off. She was asleep a while after midnight.

This time she dreamt of a familiar place, she'd only visited once; a couple of years after her mom died. She remembered the dungeons faintly, since she was about five years old when that happened, but she was certain that was the place.

She started wandering around carefully, until she spotted not a familiar face.

“Andy!”, Caroline called and ran to the bars. Andy didn't seem to notice her. She frowned and waved her hand to get his attention.

It was as if she was invisible, but for some reason that didn't faze her much. She kept going. She felt that Andy wasn't the reason she was there.

Just as she was started to worry she was getting lost down there, she spotted another familiar face she never thought she would see again; not in the palace anyway.

“Crystal?”, she tilted her head in confusion and furrowed her eyebrows. Crystal ignored her, much like Andy had.

Her sister was sitting crossed legged on the floor, back to back with a boy in the cell next to hers. He seemed to be sleeping but she was staring at a seemingly fresh burn mark.

Caroline gritted her teeth. She knew her father was the one behind this, but she couldn't just go confront him about it. She wasn't even sure if what she was seeing was real.

She turned to look at the sleeping boy. Somehow, she knew his name. Scott Harrow.

Before she could inspect what was going on any further, she felt as if she was falling.

She blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, she was lying on the floor next to her bed, face-down.

Through the blinds over at her window, she saw daylight. She got dressed and left for Tristan's room.

She knocked on the door multiple times and got no answer, so she walked in. That's when she realised why Tristan wasn't replying; he was in the middle of a make-out session with Violet.

Caroline cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

“Hey! Don't you knock?”, Tristan exclaimed. She glared at him. “Just kidding.”, he smiled cheekily.

“Good morning to you too.”, she gave him a fake smile. “I need your help confirming something.”

“What is it?”

“I should go...”, Violet scratched the back of her head and stood up.

“You don't have to. I need your help too.”

Violet looked surprised at that, and so did Tristan. “Caroline, what's going on?”, he asked her suspiciously.

“I- I think dad caught Crystal.”, she muttered in reply.

Her brother scoffed. “If he'd caught her, we would have known. She'd be roaming in the palace and fighting with dad.”, he rolled his eyes, but didn't seem to be convincing himself. Violet started fidgeting uncomfortably.

“That's the point! I think she's down in the dungeons.”, Caroline bit her lip.

“You have to be kidding me...”