Scott, Phoebe and Crystal stayed at the cabin for a couple days. They found it would be too dangerous to be out and about while Alastor was after them. After a few days, the search parties would mostly die out and traveling would be safer.

They'd take turns with the couch, if Crystal let anyone touch it. She slept there every night because she thought that Scott and Phoebe needed better sleep at night, which made little to no sense, but she wouldn't hear a word.

Hiding in the cabin wasn't hard. It looked really old on the outside, so anyone who saw it would think it too dangerous to live or hide in.

Looks deceived, though.

The seemingly dilapidated cabin was really comfortable and well-preserved on the inside. The outside, on the other hand, had been left to  rot on purpose. This way the cabin was so into place and fit in with the landscape, that it went by unnoticed.

The kids' food was running out, though. The have to leave soon and Scott wanted, once again, to leave his sister somewhere safe. Phoebe, of course, knew all about her brother's plans and utterly disagreed with him, but there wasn't much she could do.

Scott had a tendency to do irrational things with no explanation, and this usually had the outcome everyone wanted but no one was expecting. Phoebe concluded that whatever was going on with Scott at the time would end and things would be back to normal- hopefully not the old normal.

The day after they arrived at the cabin, Crystal woke up last, which was a surprise to the Harrow siblings, since she'd been the first one to go to sleep the night before.

I guess you can't overpower exhaustion.

Scott was still in bed, awake, but too bored to get out of it. He wanted to rest some more. Soon they'd have to be on the run again.

Phoebe had gone out with a tablecloth and was sitting outside on the grass, keeping watch for anyone who might approach.

As Scott was staring at the ceiling, lost in thought, a loud bang startled and made him sit up.

"Ouch...", Crystal groaned, sitting up on the floor and rubbing her sides.

"Dammit, princess! You can't even sleep right!," Scott rolled his eyes.

"Shut up...", she muttered sleepily. "You know what? I don't have the courage to get back in the couch... Goodnight!", she added and lied down on the rug.

"You have to be kidding me.", Scott got up, sighing, and approached the couch only to see that Crystal had, indeed, fallen back asleep on the floor. He rubbed his forehead, then picked her up to lay her on Phoebe's bed.

"What do you think you're doing?", she mumbled again.

"Taking you to Phoebe's bed to sleep."

"Don't be stupid! The floor was comfy! Put me back where you found me!", she protested.

"Nope."

"Come on! I want the floor! The rug is soft...", she started giggling.

"Have you been following on your brothers footsteps and gotten into drinking?", Scott stopped walking, raising an eyebrow.

"No!", she punched him lightly on the shoulder, still laughing.


Then Scott had the brightest idea ever and started spinning around. Crystal, startled as she was, clung to his neck for dear life and started giggling hysterically. Scott burst out laughing too.

"Put me down!", she laughed.

And then the door opened and they froze. Phoebe raised an eyebrow when she saw them.

"What are you doing?", she asked them.

"Nothing.", Scott and Crystal said at the same time.

"Okay...", Phoebe closed the door and went back out, clearly unconvinced.

The other two glanced at each other and burst out laughing again.

Scott set Crystal down, but she stumbled because of her dizziness (caused by all the spinning) and hysterical laughter and went over the couch's back and onto the couch itself, yelping.

Trying to avoid said fall, she grabbed for the thing closest to her rinregain her balance. Unfortunately, that thing was Scott's shirt- which he was wearing.

You can imagine what happened next, I think. Well, in case you can't, I'll tell you anyway.

Scott was surprised by Crystal, who accidentally pulled him along as she fell over the couch. He landed on top of her, something that made them both turn really red

The door opened again. "I forgot what I came to tel--", Phoebe froze again, making Crystal and Scott even redder. She stared at them for a second, and then slowly backed away and got out without the word, closing the door.

Crystal and Scott stared at each other for a few moments. "Can you get off of me?", Crystal said eventually. Scott turned even redder at that, if that's possible.

"Right. Sorry.", Scott muttered, sitting down on the floor.

"I'll go explain to her what happened.", Crystal said awkwardly and rushed outside.


She found Phoebe staring at the lake, but she looked up when she noticed Crystal approaching her.

"Hey!", Phoebe greeted her cheerfully.

"Hey...", Crystal waved at her awkwardly, sitting down next to her.


For a few moments, neither spoke.

"Look, there's noth--", Crystal started.

"I don't care. I don't give a damn about my brother's love life or whatever.", Phoebe shrugged. "Unless I get to play matchmaking... Then it's a whole other story."

"No! I mean it! There's nothing going on between us. What you saw was a coincidence.", Crystal insisted.

"Crystal, I already told you. I don't care."

"I got that, just let me explain! I fell off the couch and was too bored to love, so I fell back asleep on the floor. Scott saw that as a chance to get me to sleep on one of the beds, but I didn't want to. That's when he started spinning me around. And then, when he finally put me down, I was dizzy and laughing, so I stumbled and while I was trying to regain my balance I reached dor something to hold on. It's not my fault that something was your brother!", Crystal rambled.

"If nothing's going on between the two of you, then why are you so flustered about it?", Phoebe asked her.

Crystal paused for a moment. She didn't know how to reply to that, so she needed to think of a good answer. "I don't want you to believe something that isn't true.", she said eventually.

"That's fair.", Phoebe shrugged. "Now go back inside, we don't want you getting spotted."


Crystal nodded and did as Phoebe told her.

A while later Phoebe joined her and Scott in the cabin.

"We need to talk.", she told them.

"What is it?", Scott furrowed his eyebrows. He was sitting cross-legged on a chair opposite Crystal and they were plain a game of cards.

"I think someone found us.", Phoebe muttered.

"What?! Not again!", Crystal panicked.

"I'm not sure, but we should leave tomorrow; just in case. There's been some strange movement around here lately. I feel like we're being watched."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?", Scott questioned. He didn't say it angrily, he just was a little curious.

"I tried to, but you two were doing- well, I don't know what you were doing.", Phoebe sighed in exasperation.


Scott and Crystal turned blushed again.

"Right...", he muttered.

"Anyway, that was all. We're leaving tomorrow.", Phoebe shrugged and went back outside to keep watch.


°~*~°

Violet felt awkward. When she first got the idea to invite Jackson and Charles to tag along she hadn't considered the fact that they were a couple and that couples do cute things together and need privacy. She started to feel as if she was the one tagging along.

She thought that having people tag along would help get her mind off Tristan but seeing the pair of them together only made matters worse.

But she wasn't jealous or cranky or any of these. She loved seeing Jackson and Charles act all cute, and in a way she shipped them, but she kept feeling nostalgic for the time she spent with Tristan.

She really wanted to see him again. She felt as if something was wrong with him. She felt extra tired, extra hungry and extra cold and had tried communicating with him through their link, but to no avail. She didn't even know if communication was possible with a spell like this but that didn't keep her from trying.

For the first time in a very long time, she felt alone.

"Violet!", Charles snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?", she exclaimed.

"You zoned out. Again.", Jackson informed her. "Will this be happening a lot? Should we get used to it?", he added curiously.

"Probably? I don't know... I don't know a lot of stuff these days...", she sighed, fiddling with the red dust that was showing them the way to Cheryl. Somehow she was able to see this one whereas last time she cast such a spell it had only been visible to Caroline.

"Is everything okay?", Charles asked her.

"Kind of... I'm a little stressed, that's all.", she sighed again. At that moment she could swear she heard a voice saying only a little?, but she shrugged it off. She was exhausted, after all. Her mind was playing tricks on her. "Let's just keep going we've almost reached the border.", she added with a weak smile on her face.

"Are you sure you're okay?", Jackson furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah! I just... My boyfriend and I cast a binding spell thing, so I don't only have my own exhaustion, I have his too.", she yawned.

"Do you want to stop and rest for the day?", Charles asked her again.

"No, not yet. We're almost there anyway."

"Almost where?", Jackson raised an eyebrow.

"The border! I already told you that.", Violet reminded him.

"Right. I say we stop and go on tomorrow."

"I agree. It's getting dark, there's no point to keep traveling.", Charles jumped back into the conversation.

Violet glared at them, but was too tired to argue. "Fine.", she gave up. "But we'll leave at dawn."

The other two nodded and they all started setting camp. Violet was collecting some firewood, when she felt someone's presence behind her. She turned around to see if it was one of her companions playing a prank on her, but she saw no one.

She could still feel as if someone was there, though. She squinted in the dark, trying to see if there was anyone hiding among the trees, but the darkness was too thick and she could see nothing.

"Violet! Did you get lost or something?", Jackson yelled for her.

"No! I'm right here! Just a moment...", she replied and picked up a few more branches before returning to the others.

After spending some time talking with Jackson and Charles, she laid makeshift bed and went to sleep.

The problem is that she didn't stay asleep. For some strange reason, she woke up just a few hours later, not feeling tired at all.

But that wasn't the weirdest thing in the whole situation. She could hear someone calling her name.

"Tristan?!", she said out loud and scanned the surrounding trees for him. He was nowhere.

She furrowed her eyebrows thinking that it had only been a dream, but then she heard it again. This time she knew it was in her head.

"Violet, please! Can you hear me?"

She froze.

"Yes, I can", she thought. She could feel Tristan's relief and smiled to herself. "Where the hell are you? I'm guessing you've left the palace...", she asked him.

"Well, yeah... There's something you need to know. That's why I left."

"What is it?"

"It's my dad. He's planning to attack my uncle. You need to tell Cheryl! I'm on my way to Daniel's, but I'm going to need her help to convince him."

"Dammit."

°~*~°

Caroline still had no idea what had happened since Alastor entered the room and caught Lux spilling every single secret she was supposed to be keeping.

Everything happened too fast.

She only remembered the basics; how furious her father was, how terrified she'd been and that Lux had gotten a really good telling off that included death threats towards her brother.

Alastor had made it pretty clear that if he didn't need Caroline and Lux for what he was planning, he would have killed them on the spot. Suffice to say that Caroline couldn't believe her ears when she heard her father talking so casually about murdering people.

He also made it just as clear that Erebos would be executed no matter how he did in his mission, which broke Lux. She begged a lot for her brother to be left alone, but Alastor wouldn't hear a word.

He finally left them alone a while later, which baffled both Lux and Caroline, who guessed that her father thought that Lux couldn't make any bigger of a mess and assumed that the cat was out of the bag.

Caroline now knew things she wasn't supposed to and there was nothing Alastor could do about it.

"Lux? Why couldn't you erase my memory?", Caroline asked her.

"Leave me alone. You already know too much.", Lux hissed, not bothering to wipe the tears off her eyes.

"Seriously? Alright. I'll make you a deal."

"Oh, I learned a long time ago to not make deals or asking help from Cornell, whether they're born in the family or married. Most recent example of things going wrong: your father."

"Fine! Just tell me! Maybe I can put in a word with my dad and save your brother, just tell me all you can! How can you still be working with him after what he did to Benny?"

Lux's gaze hardened. "How do you know about Benny?"

"Dad mentioned in one of the dreams I had that he was your ex.", Caroline confessed.

"Did he mention to you why we broke up in the first place?", the witch asked her. Caroline shook her head. "Of course he didn't."

"Do you want to talk about it?", the princess frowned.

Lux gulped. "Of course I do. Do you know hard it's been for me to keep all these secrets?", her voice cracked.

Caroline patted her shoulder. "You can tell me."

Lux looked at her in disbelief for a couple seconds, but gave in. The urge to blown off some steam was too big. "I grew up with your father. His brother too. Believe it or not, Alastor, Dan and Cheryl were best friends. Same went for Andy, Margaret and Benny. Cheryl and I never got along. We were too competitive.", Lux muttered. "She never was a powerful witch, but she was emotional, which made her really good at curses. I- I took someone from her. See my skin? She did this to me.", she growled, fuming at the thought of Cheryl.

Caroline eyes widened. "She must have been really pissed at you! Who did you take from her? Did you kill them?"

Lux looked down in shame and avoided Caroline's gaze, who gave her a curious look.

"Lux, who did you take away from Cheryl?", she said carefully.

"I took her daughter."