Caroline was furious.

Just as they were getting close to the person the trail was leading them to, the purple light started flickering and dissipated soon after. Violet guessed that the killer probably realised they were being tracked and managed to block the spell out which infuriated all three of them even more.

Tristan was so mad, he was certain that he would have killed Faith's murderer on the spot, had they found him. Whoever that person might have been, they would have been no more.

Violet kept trying to reenact part of the spell, so that they would only be led to the killer, but couldn't. She eventually decided that it was useless, because someone more powerful than her, probably Lux, was blocking her out and could retrace the spell to her if they wanted, so she stopped.

Their little operation was on hiatus for a while. They needed to stay hidden, and being active at the time was going to get them caught, though things changed a bit a couple of days later, when Caroline had a really weird nightmare.

She dreamt that her father was having a really heated conversation with Andy Dow. Alastor kept yelling at him, while the general was trying to get himself out of the situation.

Apparently, her father was ordering Andy to go kill someone, as if he was some kind of hitman, and Andy was trying to refuse. Alastor was threatening him that he'd send the army to kill the entire village if Andy didn't go, but the poor man kept repeating that he couldn't kill his best friend in cold blood.

Caroline tried to go defend Andy, but her feet were stuck to the ground. She tried to call his name, but her voice wouldn't come out. Two guards came inside, grabbed Andy by the arms and dragged him outside. Alastor looked at a grim and dangerous-looking man and told him he had just gotten promoted. He was tall, muscular and had a long scar running from under his left eye, through his cheek and down to his chin. His eyes were blue and cold and his hair were blond. She had never seen him before, but she somehow knew his name. Erebos.

Then the image shifted.

Caroline could saw the fire before she could smell it. It was all she could see, along with people running for their lives.

No one made it far. Her father's soldiers slaughtered them all one by one and in the centre of it all, Erebos was standing with his longsword at hand, smirking contentedly with an evil glint in his eyes. Caroline felt like he could actually see her something that didn't happen with Andy, her father and the other people amongst the chaos.

Eventually, Erebos turned around and marched up to a small house on a hill. Caroline managed to follow him.

Two guards were holding a man with dirty blonde hair down to her ground. The man was on his knees. She had never seen him either, but she knew his name too. It took a little longer to come to her. Erebos approached him, drew out a small knife and slit his throat. The man fell on the ground, in a pool of blood. The two soldiers dragged him into the house and lit it on fire.

Benny. Benny Meadows. Caroline thought as she woke up with a start. That was Crystal's adoptive father.

She sat up and tried to comprehend what had just happened. How did she know what Benny looked like? How did she recognise Erebos? How did she know their names? Was Andy okay?

She wanted to rule that out as a dream, but it felt real. Much realer than a dream should feel. She could still smell the fire and feel the heat.

What the hell was going on?

*~°~*

Phoebe fared her brother and Crystal goodbye and stayed behind to make sure her mother got a proper burial and that no one tracked Scott and his friend.

Meanwhile, Scott and Crystal were travelling in silence. Scott wouldn't talk to her and she didn't dare make a move, because she didn't want to push him.

Eventually, they set camp in the middle of the woods.

“Not even a day left. We'll get back to travelling on the morning and arrive there at noon.”, Scott told her.

“Great! I can't wait to see Benny.”, she smiled.

“We have to be careful, though. Your father is going to have people everywhere. We're going to have to go by unnoticed, get Benny and then leave.”

“Alastor's not my dad. He's a bully that takes advantage of the power he's taken by force.”, Crystal glared at him.

“Whatever.”, he rolled his eyes.

“What's wrong? I mean, apart from everything that's wrong these days.”

“That's none of your business.”, he grumbled. She frowned and nodded.

“Okay... Talk whenever you're ready.”, she sighed.

“That's going to be somewhere between never and not going to happen.”, he rolled his eyes. “I'm going to sleep.”, he grumbled, again, and rolled over in his makeshift bed.

“Goodnight...”, she sighed.

“Yeah... You too.”, he muttered.

Crystal sighed again and lied down on her bed. She really wanted Scott to talk to her because she really cared. That was Scott's problem, though; he didn't want people to care about him.

He wasn't one to hang around. He disappeared at random for long periods of time, until you forgot about him or even thought him dead. He didn't want to worry her that way, even if he wasn't really aware of that himself.

Crystal fell asleep immediately. Scott took a little longer and was restless all night, tossing and turning. Nightmares of his father still haunted him at night.

The next morning they got going. Soon, Crystal started recognising the area.

“This is where Benny brought me every year! It was our vacation spot. We came here every summer for weeks! It's where I learned how to swim.”, she said excitedly, pointing at a huge lake. “Lake Lerhome. The waters are the clearest I've ever seen.”, she smiled.

“That's cool, I guess.”, Scott shrugged. Crystal couldn't stop jumping up and down. She'd really missed her village.

They didn't come across Alastor's army, which made Scott feel suspicious of the whole thing. Crystal didn't seem to notice.

“There! Right over the hill!”, she got off Ash and started waiting.

“Princess, wait!”, he yelled after her, but she ignored him and ran to the top. He jumped off Ash and followed her.

He found she had stopped abruptly when she reached the top. He frowned and approached her with a quick step. When he reached her, she turned around and gave him a look of utter devastation.

“What is it?”, he furrowed his eyebrows. She closed her eyes and a couple of tears came rolling down. He looked over the hill and saw that right where there had been a village a week ago, there was now nothing but ash and rubble and not a soul to be seen.

“I've got to find Benny.”, Crystal croaked and took off running down the hill.

“Wait!”, he tried to stop her, but she was already pretty far away. “Dammit!”, he muttered under his breath and went after her.

For someone in a dress down her ankles, she sure ran pretty fast.

Crystal ran to her house up a much smaller hill and barged inside. It was half-burnt, much like everything else. Everything she knew was literally in ashes.

“Dad!”, she called and started searching around. No answer. Benny was nowhere to be found.

When Scott finally found her, she was on her knees, sobbing she was clutching on a seemingly hand-made bow. A quiver of arrows was lying on the floor next to her.

He hesitantly reached for her shoulder.

“Princess?”, he called. She didn't look up. She couldn't bear to do it. She couldn't stand seeing the place she grew up in, her home, like this. It was devastating.

Scott kneeled beside her and patted her shoulder. He didn't know what else to do. He'd never been good with the emotional stuff.

A man with blond hair and a scar across his cheek walked in. Scott furrowed his eyebrows.

“Who are you?”, he asked him. The man didn't reply, he only smirked lightly. Crystal finally looked up. She frowned.

“I've never seen you around the village. You can't be a survivor.”

"Of course you haven't; I'm the one that did this.", he shrugged.

“You what?!”, Crystal shot up and would have probably killed the stranger in front of her, if Scott hadn't held her back. “Let me go! He killed everyone!”, she sobbed as she weakly fought to escape Scott's grasp.

“Now, I've had enough of your tears and screams, so could you please get out of the house? It's surrounded and your father is really eager to have a talk with you back at the palace.”, the man sighed.

“No! I'm not going back there!”, she protested.

"Yes, you are.", he clicked his tongue and grabbed her arm. Before she or Scott could react, he managed to sprinkle some sort of strange dust on her.

“Wha- what's this supposed to be?”, she she asked in confusion.

“This is going to keep you from doing anything... unnatural. Do I really have to explain everything? Just get out before I make you do it the hard way.”, he rolled his eyes. They ignored him.

He grabbed them both by the hair and pulled them outside, pushing them to the ground. He hadn't noticed the bow and arrows that were now slung over Crystal's back. That, or he chose to ignore them.

“Scott, I'm so sorry, this is all my fault... You told me we shouldn't come here and I didn't listen and now I got us both in trouble and--”, Crystal burst into tears again.

“Shut up, witch.”, the man rolled his eyes, saying the word witch as if it was something insulting.

“Hey! Don't talk to her like that!”, Scott yelled at him. The man glared at the boy and kicked him in the gut. Scott, who was already on the ground, grunted and rolled over in pain. Crystal rushed over to him.

“Who the hell are you anyway? You keep avoiding the question.”, she gritted her teeth.

“I'm Erebos Bailey. King Alastor hired me to take you back to the palace. He said he doesn't care about the condition you arrive in, though, so I would watch my tongue, if I were you.”, Erebos smirked.

Crystal gave him a glare made up of pure hate, which only made him smile harder.

“Get up. Both of you.”, he told Crystal and Scott. They tried to ignore him, again, but Erebos motioned at a few guards with his head, and they pulled the two kids up on their feet. “Get them in the back of the carriage. We're leaving now.”, he sneered.

Crystal, then, did something that no one saw coming. She slid out from the guards' grasp and targeted Erebos with an arrow.

“Don't think about moving. He'll be dead before you get to me.”, she gritted her teeth. Erebos smirked. “Let Scott go.”, she hissed. The guards did nothing. She pulled the arrow back and gave Erebos a demanding glare.

“You heard her. Let him go.”, Erebos sneered again. The soldiers pushed Scott towards Crystal. She didn't turn around to catch him because she was still threatening Erebos, but Scott didn't fall or anything this time.

“Princess? What are you doing?”, Scott muttered.

“Getting us out of the trouble I got us into in the first place.”, she mumbled back. “You'll let us go. Don't try to follow us.”, she hissed and started backing away, along with Scott.

“Not so fast, kiddo.”, a quite pale woman appeared out of nowhere.

“What's with you people appearing out of thin air today?”, Scott sighed in exasperation.

“For once, I agree with the brat.”, Erebos wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“If there's a brat around here, that's you, mommy's boy.”, the woman told him sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“I love you too.”, he snorted.

“Trust me, you'll hate me even more after we talk about what you did.”, she gave him a smile that said you'll die later because I don't want to mentally scar the children any further.

Erebos scoffed. “Since when do you care about who lives and who dies? I heard that you imprisoned an underage witch less than a week ago, just to lure another one back to your village. And then they escaped together. Isn't that against your witch laws or whatever?”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures. And Cheryl is much more powerful of a witch than I thought.”, Lux glared at Crystal, for some reason. “What are you even doing here? Alastor sent me to take care of this.”

“You were taking too long. Besides, he sent you out to take care of your mistake, not his own.”

Crystal and Scott glanced at each other and started inching away from the fighting adults.

“Where do you two think you're going?”, Lux turned around and glared at the two teenagers.

“Run!”, Scott told Crystal and they took off.

“Nope. I won't be having any of this.”, Lux grumbled and waved her arm. Crystal and Scott stopped running, simply because their feet were no longer touching the ground. “You're not the only one with powers around here, princess.”, Lux mocked Crystal. “There are a few differences, though. For one, I can actually use my powers right now. Witch dust? That's hard to come across, little brother.”, she turned to Erebos, as she absentmindedly pulled the kids towards the carriage.

“Wait- you're siblings? Wow. I can't see the resemblance.”, Scott rolled his eyes.

“Half-siblings. From our... mother's side. As if I'd have the same excuse of a father as this loser.”, Lux sighed bitterly at the mention of her mother, motioning towards her brother.

“He was an acceptable father to me.”, Erebos shrugged.

“Exactly. To you.”

“And I thought my family was messed up.”, Scott shook his head.

“Tell me about it.”, Crystal agreed.

“Okay, I've had enough of you two...”, the older witch rolled her eyes and threw the two kids in a cage at the back of a carriage. The cage itself was covered with a large piece of cloth, which was tied up on the bars.

“Wait! Don't--”, the princess tried to stop her. Scott rushed to the metal door. They faintly heard Erebos mutter something about how good of a bow Crystal's was and assumed he picked it up.

By the time they reacted, they were already locked inside.

Crystal started crying and apologising again. “Scott, I'm really, really sorry. You warned me and I knew it was a bad idea but I never think with my head and now I got you in trouble too and your sister- what's going to happen with Phoebe? She'll be looking for you! This is all my fault, I should have listened to you, I'm so st--”, she rushed, sobbing.

“Princess, calm down. We'll talk about this after we escape.”, he whispered.

She stopped sobbing in surprise and frowned. “How are you so sure we will? I mean... Last time I ran away it was from my room, no one was expecting it and it was still pretty hard. I had the help of five other people. If they take us to the dungeons, we'll never see the light of day again.”

“That's why we're not going to the dungeons. We're going to escape before we reach the palace.”, he whispered even lower. “We'll figure it out.”, he added, though he didn't sound so sure. Crystal wasn't sure whether he was saying that to her or to himself. Maybe it was both, but she didn't give it much thought.

They were right. If they made it to the palace, they'd never get out alive. Alastor was mad at them both and he was cruel and ruthless even when he was calm. Crystal didn't want to see what he was like when he felt like murdering people.

She imagined it would be slow and messy, but didn't really want to confirm.

Lux and Erebos bickered all the way back to the palace. Crystal and Scott tried everything; from requesting to get out to stretch their legs, eat or even "relieve themselves", if you know what I mean. Okay, I'm just going to say it; I spent half an hour trying to find a formal word for pee, but none was good enough for me, so here you have it: they said they wanted to pee.

Anyway, nothing worked. Eventually, they decided that they would make a run for it once they arrived at the gates of the palace. It would be hard, but they couldn't risk getting locked up in the dungeons.

The tables had turned; Scott was unusually optimistic about the whole plan. Crystal? Not so much. They just had to wait and see...

The problem was that due to Lux's magic, that very evening, so there wasn't much time for them to come up with a plan B. They only had one shot at this.

*~°~*

Caroline wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone after her ominous nightmare. She had locked her bedroom door and was out in her balcony, looking at the empty court below, when the gate started to slowly open. The loud noise caught he attention, since no visitors she knew of were expected that day.

She leaned over the bars and observed the carriage, which came in a while later, closely. That's when she noticed a familiar face riding it. Someone from her nightmare. Her godmother, Lux, was on the carriage next to him.

Erebos, she thought. It can't be.

She furrowed her eyebrows and tried to focus on the carriage again, but she started feeling dizzy. The balcony overlooking the court wasn't a big one and she couldn't hold on anywhere stable. She'd have to go inside, if she wanted to avoid falling to her death and she needed to be alive if she wanted to explain the situation to her brother.

Caroline decided to go inside, wondering what made her feel so queasy out of nowhere.

Maybe, just maybe, if she'd stayed out on the balcony, she would have seen and heard Crystal and Scott fighting for their freedom and failing.

It was a lost cause from the beginning...