Five days that were supposed to be spent celebrating the return of the Prince had been turned to hell and horror. No one outside the Advisory and the royal family had any idea though. To keep the people from panicking, things had carried on as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. And so, while Astasha and Calder had been suffering and fighting for each other and their lives, the people of Trenue had drank and sang and danced. And now, as Astasha sat in her room, a prisoner to her circumstances, the closing festivities were in full swing. Once back in her chambers, she had immediately used her fire to pull energy, but the power that flowed into her, for some reason, burned harder and brighter than before. It was strange, but then, all of this was strange. Helia had been able to piece together part of what was happening, but there were still so many things that hadn’t been explained. After cleaning off the grime, and sweat, and blood of everything that had happened, she ap

As much as they longed for it, willed it, time would not stand still. It passed like the moon overhead as they made love again and again, shared stories of their time apart, and reminisced about memories of their time together long ago. They refused to allow sleep to take them, not wanting to miss a single second of the time they had left together. Naked and curled up in each other's arms on the bed, Calder ran his fingers through her hair. Astasha’s eyes were fixed on the little window in her ceiling, unable to force herself to look away. “The light will be here soon." Cal pulled her closer to him and kissed her forehead. "Don't think of that yet, my love." Her mind had been working overtime, thinking of the way their scars reached out to each other each time they were in the throes of passion, hers a flickering gold, his an icy blue. She kept thinking of the feeling she had had when Cal had sent out the blast of energy in the healing ward, wondering what it all meant, what was

It took all of the strength in her for Astasha not to collapse in tears. So to keep herself from breaking, she reached inside and pulled the fire within, wrapping it around her heart, shielding it, cutting off her heartache. Her focus turned to the older Fire Witch who stood before her, watching her, reading her. "Please, come in." Astasha stepped out of the way for Helia to enter her room and followed behind, closing the door. She couldn't bear to look at her bed, so she led the way to her workshop. "I take it you have some ideas about how to do this?" "I do, but first, I just wanted to see how you were doing. The past couple of days can’t have been anything but horrific for you, and it seems everyone’s concerns have fallen far outside the understanding of basic human emotions and needs." "I am fine, Sorceress—" "Please, call me Helia." “Thank you Helia. But really, I’m fine.” She was far from it, but pity would do nothing for her now. Helia nodded once, watching Astas

"The land gained from your conquest is indeed rich with resources, Your Highness, but they are useless unless you happened to secure a viable distribution route in the process. By sea perhaps?" The old advisor had been rambling for what felt like eternity, and Calder was desperately trying to drown his voice out. His mind kept wandering to the tether around his wrist that never changed its direction. Tasha was still a prisoner in her room, still trapped alone with a demon, without him by her side, and all his father and the advisors wanted to talk about were resources and distribution routes. "Your Highness?" Calder closed his eyes against the advisor's voice. "Calder!" The booming sound from his father forced him to look up. "No!” He barked back. “There is no viable route by sea. Nor by land, not without sending an army of workers to hack through the forest at its borders. It was how we were able to take them by surprise. There is no easy way into their country. It took us ti

Astasha’s head was splitting as if fire was searing through it. What was going on? She tried to open her eyes, but her lids were too heavy. Maybe if she slept more, the pain would stop. Yes, rest was what she needed. As she tried to roll over in her bed, she realized her arms were very heavy as well. In fact, they refused to move. Why couldn't she make them move? It was then that she became aware of something wrapped around her, holding her in place. Slowly, panic set in, and everything began to come back to her; the salve, the dizziness, the darkness. But she had made it to Bryn. She had seen his face before losing consciousness. Something was wrong. She mustered all her willpower and forced her eyes to open. Her vision was blurry and the world dark, but she could make out a shape moving in the distance. Astasha attempted to shift her position again, but realized she was restrained, tied to something, and a chill went down her spine. The demon's accomplice had her. She h