Caroline and Phoebe had a lot to talk about.

“Phoebe, what the hell are you doing here? Are Crystal and Scott okay? Did something happen? How did you get here? I thought you'd gone past the border--”, the princess rushed.

“Okay, calm down! I can't tell you what happened unless you relax.”, Phoebe replied, sitting down on the bench closest to her.

“Right. Sorry.”, Caroline ran a hand through her hair. “We can't talk here, anyway. Let's go somewhere more private.”

“If you wanted to get me alone, you could have just asked.”, Phoebe wiggled her eyebrows. Caroline gave her a confused look.

“That's what I just did or do you want everyone to find out where the kingdom's most wanted fugitives are?”

“That's now what I meant...”, Phoebe turned red and followed Caroline.

She noticed that Caroline was pretty on edge, always glancing around suspiciously.

“You're lucky my father isn't here.”, she told Phoebe.

“He's not here? Where is he?”

“I don't know. He left this morning.”, Caroline grumbled.

“And why am I lucky? He wouldn't exactly recognise me.”

“Trust me, he has his ways.”

Caroline stopped in front of a door, opened it and entered the room. Phoebe hesitated.

“Are you coming or what?”, Caroline asked her.

“Yeah.”, Phoebe muttered and went in after her.

Caroline sat down at the edge of the bed. “So? What's going on?”

“Okay, so after we left here, my brother, your sister and I went to a cabin in the woods nearby. Scott somehow has the keys to it and he and Crystal had stayed there before. Anyway, we stayed there for a couple days and the night before we were supposed to leave some guy named Erebos came out of nowhere.”, Phoebe started explaining.

“I know.”, Caroline gulped.

“How?”

“Some witch found him half-dead in the woods and brought him here. My father executed him the next day for failing to bring in your brother and Crystal.”, Caroline frowned.

“Yeah... And I can assure you that if that witch hadn't picked him up he would have died in the woods.”, Phoebe replied, looking ashamed of herself. “That's not the point though. That guy tried to throw a knife at Scott, but missed and stabbed Crystal instead. I stayed behind to... take care of him, and my brother left with Crystal to take her to a healer. They had their fair share of troubles there.”, she sighed.

“What kind of troubles?”

“The short story is that the healer poisoned Crystal and threatened to turn them in.”

“I don't think I want to hear the long story.”

“You don't.”, Phoebe agreed. “We met a few days later past the border. I bumped into Violet before I crossed. She was with some other witch that looked a lot like Crystal and turned out to be Cheryl Cornel.”

“The fact that Violet was traveling with her doesn't surprise me, but I didn't know Crystal looked like her...”, Caroline muttered. Her mind started racing again.

Phoebe didn't seem to notice. “Then I found my brother and Crystal at a tavern. Scott seemed shaken up about something so I went outside to talk with him. It was too late when we realised that we shouldn't have left Crystal all alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some scout, sent by your father by the looks of it, came after her. We managed to run away, but he chased us all over town. We split up and he insisted on following your sister. He managed to corner her in an alleyway.”, Phoebe gulped.

Caroline's eyes widened. “Is she okay?”

“You could say that.”, Phoebe bit her lip. “Scott got there on time. I arrived a while later.”

“What happened?”

“I'm not sure if I should be the one to say this. Maybe you should let your sister tell you what happened next.”

“I'm probably never going to see her again. How is she going to tell me?”

“I don't know. It really isn't my story to tell. Don't worry, though, we made it out in one piece.”

“Thank God...”, Caroline sighed in relief.

“Violet and Cheryl came along with two other dudes. And let me tell you something about Violet; she's dead to me.”

“Do I want to know?”

“I'm not sure...”

“Now I'm curious.”

“Well, Jackson and Charles--”

“Who are they?”

“Oh, right. The other dudes I told you about; you don't know them. They're a couple and Violet found them in the woods after they tried to rob her or something, so she just took them along. Violet is weird like that.”

“I've noticed...”, Caroline cracked a very small and barely visible smile. Phoebe noticed and smiled back.

Caroline awkwardly looked away.

“So... What happened next?”

Phoebe suppressed a frown. “We all went to stay at an inn and stuff... Charles and Jackson decided to stay in the town even after we were all gone, so V and I went out to party with them. Crystal and Scott came too, but went home early. I don't know the details, but Violet walked in on them when they were about to bloody kiss and accidentally interrupted them.”

“They were about to what?!”, Caroline stood up. Even when thee were both standing, Phoebe was still notably taller than her, despite being two years younger.

“Oh, come on! It's pretty obvious... Even though I don't know if anything's going to happen. My brother is a bloody moron.”, Phoebe grumbled.

“Wow.”

“Anyway, the next day I left with Violet and Cheryl instead of Crystal and Scott, who are going to stay at your uncle's kingdom. The two others are on their way back. They used some weird spell thing and teleported me here.”

“You had quite the week, didn't you?”

“You have no idea...”, Phoebe chuckled.

“And what are you doing here?”

“I don't know if I'm supposed to tell you, but you're pretty cute and I can't help myself.”

Caroline looked away shyly. “Um... Thank you?”

“I mean it.”, Phoebe blushed. “I'm here to see if your father is planning anything suspicious.”

“Why didn't you say so earlier?”

“I was telling you everything that happened so far! What is he planning?”

“He's going to attack Daniel's kingdom!”

“He's going to what?! Oh my God... Crystal and Scott are there!”

“Tristan too! He left to warn our uncle, but I haven't heard from him ever since he left...”

“Tristan left?! When?”

“About a day after you picked up Crystal and Scott.”

“This is bad... I have to warn--”, Phoebe stopped abruptly when she felt her neck but not the necklace.

“What's wrong?”

“I can't find the necklace.”, Phoebe whispered, shock evident on her face. She started trembling.

“What necklace?”

“The one Cheryl gave me to contact her. I don't know where they are, I can't send them a letter!”

“This just got a whole lot worse.”, Caroline gulped.

*~°~*


Scott and Crystal had packed their things and were back to traveling towards the capital.

Going on a trip was much easier when they had an actual goal and no people after them.

It was more pleasant too. They weren't stressed, so they didn't have anything to bicker about and they'd started getting closer to each other. Even when they walked in silence, they no longer felt awkward.

Crystal slipped her hand into Scott's who blushed furiously but didn't say anything.

The very same night they arrived at their destination. It was pretty late, but they still knocked on a random inn's door. The owner let them in grumpily and gave them a room as fast as he could, before going back to sleep as fast as possible.

The two teenagers exchanged a look, shrugged and went to their assigned room. When they opened the door they noticed there were two single beds.

For some reason they both felt a little disappointed, though they didn't know why.

Crystal fell asleep immediately, but Scott stayed up again, questioning his morality about what he was about to do. He was running out of time. He had to finally make a decision and Crystal's newfound behavior towards him didn't make things any easier.

He didn't sleep at all that night; he kept thinking about what to do.

And that night, he made his decision.

The next morning, Crystal wasn't surprised to see that he was awake.

“How did you sleep?”, she baited him. When he shrugged, she knew. “You didn't sleep, did you?”

“What if I didn't?”

Crystal shook her head, rubbing her forehead. “This isn't healthy.”

“Getting stabbed for others isn't healthy either.”, he retorted.

“It is, for the others.”, she smirked.

“Really funny.”, he rolled his eyes.

“Come on. It was a little funny.”, she laughed.

He shook his head, chuckling. “Only a little.”

“I knew it!”, she beamed. “So... What are we doing today?”

“I don't know... I was thinking about staying and napping all day...”, he yawned.

“Yeah, forget it. You can sleep at night.”, she crossed her arms.

“Come on!”

“I'm making it my personal mission to keep you up all day, so you'll sleep at night.”

“I hate you...”, he grumbled, burying his face in his pillow.

“No, you don't. I'm too lovable.”, she smiled cheekily. “Now get up. I'm hungry.”, she got out of bed.

“Five minutes?”, he looked up pleadingly.

“Nope.”, she started pulling him up, or at least tried to, because he wouldn't budge.

“This is annoying.”, he said a few seconds later.

“Good! If it isn't effective, it might as well be annoying.”

“Fine! I'm coming! Damn, princess... You're more stubborn than I thought...”, he gave up, getting out of bed.

“I'll take that as a compliment.”

“Take it as you like, but remember that everyone has a limited amount of compliments to take from me and you could lose another one...”, he grumbled.

“Was that a joke, Harrow?”

“I prefer the term brutal honesty. There's a slight difference.”

“Ouch.”

“That's why it's brutal.”

“Nah, it's just annoying.”, she winked.

“Don't use my own quotes against me.”

“Make me.”

“You know I can't...”

“Yeah, that's why I said it.”, she laughed.

“Okay, let's go get something to eat before you get any hungrier... It makes you cranky.”, he headed for the door.

“I prefer the term brutally honest.”

“I'm done talking to you.”, he chuckled.

“I think I'm going to cry.”

“Please don't.”

“Aha! You're not done talking to me.”

“That was sneaky.”

“That's why it worked.”

A few minutes later they were entering a nearby tavern. While they were eating, Scott tried to put his plan into motion.

“So... Have you noticed that there's a ball thing taking place at the palace in a few days?”, he asked Crystal.

“Yeah, I've seen a couple posters. Why?”, she replied.

“I was thinking that we could maybe go? It's open for everyone and it could be fun. I know you don't want to get caught up in your family's drama, but there's going to be a lot of people, it's not like your uncle will see you. Besides, even if he does, it's not like he'll recognise you.” he shrugged.

Crystal seemed to be thinking about it. “I don't know...”

“Come on! You deserve a break. We both do. Think about all the free food.”

“Deal.”, she said immediately. Scott chuckled.

Despite his chuckle, though, he was disappointed in himself. Phoebe would be disappointed too.

But once again, he didn't take anyone's advice and pushed himself in the dirt to give everyone else what he thought was best for them.

After they ate, they went back to the inn.

“Maybe we should get a job...”, Crystal sighed.

Scott panicked a bit. “Not yet... We have to find where we'll stay first and all that. Besides, we're going to have to rest before we get to working.”

“Fair point.”, she pouted, sitting down on her bed.

“What's wrong?”

“Do you promise you won't kill me?”

“Now I'm worried.”

“I'm bored. We've been on the run for so long that it actually became a habit. Now I don't know what to do. Things are kind of back to normal, but it feels so strange... I feel like someone is going to barge through the door and try to take us back to Alastor's.”, she confessed.

“That's normal after all that's happened. It will go away, eventually.”

“I don't know... I have the feeling that I'm missing something...”

Scott gulped. “Just relax. It's going to be fine. It's over now.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Well, we're safe, aren't we?”

“I suppose...”

“Then everything will be fine.”

“Do you promise?”

He hesitated for a moment. “I... I promise.”

She cracked a smile. “Now I'm sure that it all will be fine.”

“How are you so sure I won't break that promise?”, he tilted his head in confusion.

“Because I trust you andnyour judgement more than anyone and anything.

*~°~*

No matter how much Violet ate or slept, she was starving and exhausted. Cheryl was worried, both about her and about Tristan.

“You two couldn't have chosen a worse time to do a binding spell... You take second place in all this.”

“Why second? Who's got first?”

“Well, I only know of one other case like yours and these two chose a just as bad time. You and Tristan decided to do this towards the end; the other two did it a while before this whole thing started.”

“Who were they?”, Violet asked curiously.

“I'm not sure if I should tell you...”

“Oh, come on!”, she protested.

“Fine, but only because I can't stand seeing you like this.”, Cheryl frowned. “It was Lux and her ex, Benny Meadows.”

“Wait, you mean the guy that brought Crystal up?”, Violet's eyes widened. “He was Lux's ex?!”

“Yeah... They were quite the power couple back then.”

“Lux had an ex?!”, Violet was in shock.

“Well, yes. And she was heartbroken when they broke up.”

“Why did they break up?”

“Because she decided that taking revenge on me was worth more than living a quiet life with the man she loved. She's made some pretty bad decisions in her life.”, Cheryl sighed bitterly.

“Like?”

“You're not getting any more from me tonight. Get some sleep. You and Tristan both need it, by the looks of it.”, Cheryl muttered.

“Please?”, Violet pleaded.

“No.”, Cheryl said firmly.

“Ugh! Fine!”, the younger witch grumbled.

“Goodnight, Violet.”

“Goodnight...”

*~°~*

Lux had withdrawn herself from Caroline. She decided that she'd stay away from the princess until it was safe and she had cleared her mind of all the past memories that haunted her.

The worst memories were the guilty ones. She'd made a lot of mistakes and they all came with consequences.

Out of all these mistakes, two stood out; letting Benny go and not telling Olivia who Beatrice's killer had been.

Lux had made the mistake of burning all of her bridges, and she wasn't ready to build another one, which was why she started avoiding Caroline.

That didn't mean that she'd back out on her promise and that's why she left the palace to find Tristan and protect him from getting himself killed.