Therese ran and ran until the moon dipped below the horizon. Then, she found shelter and waited out the sun.
The nights passed quickly, but the days crept by, each longer than the last.
Therese didn’t need sleep anymore. Issues that plagued mortals, such as exhaustion, aching muscles, and joint pain had stopped bothering her long ago.
She was a pendulum swinging between two states of being.
Sometimes, she remained still and meditated, plucking at the strings of her memories. She could feel them hiding in her mind, waiting for her to uncover them. She just needed them to tell her why she’d been locked away.
They would return one day. They had to.
Other times, when the reality of what had been done to Therese became too much to bear, sheraged.Those days, when she remembered that centuries of her life had been stolen from her, she gave into the monster within her.
She screamed and pulled on her hair. She slammed her fists into stones until her hands were covered in black blood. On the days when anger took hold of her heart, she let that fury fester and grow until it was all she could think about.
Someone had stolen her life from her. Her memories. Her people. Her freedom.Everything.
During one such day, when rage tinged her vision red, and everything was too much, she made a vow.
She sliced open her palm on a sharp rock, letting black blood pool on the stones beneath her.
“I will find those responsible for locking me up,” she swore. “And when I do, I will avenge myself and the rest of the Twelve.”
She just needed more time. More blood. More strength.
Luckily, this world seemed to have more than enough humans to feed her.
You will Always be my Home
“Drink this. It’ll help.”
Marius looked between the cup being offered to him and the red-headed witch standing beside his bed. He trusted Odette. When he’d been sick with the Wasting Illness, the witch had befriended Luna and helped her find a cure for him.
Even so, he didn’t want to ingest any medicine without knowing what it contained.
He frowned and peered into the cup. The liquid was a deep purple, and a distinctly floral scent reached his nose. Another aroma was buried beneath it, but he couldn’t place it.
One of the guards had summoned Odette, and she’d arrived in Marius’s room moments after Luna and Sebastian shadowed him here.
Marius hated this.
The problem wasn’t the witch, the room, or even the medicine she held.
It was the illness itself.
He’d spent his early childhood as the subject of countless medicaltests. As a young halfling, he’d suffered through attempted healings that ultimately failed, ingested hundreds of potions, and met so many witches that he eventually lost count.
And now, years later, he was back in bed at the mercy of healers once again. He thought he’d put this part of his life behind him, but apparently not. Even his magic was subdued, as if it, too, was upset by this turn of events.
“What’s in this?” he asked.
Odette smiled and listed the ingredients, naming several wild plants that he vaguely remembered learning about during his studies. “This will help you sleep. There isn’t anything in here that I wouldn’t drink myself.”
To demonstrate, she took a sip from the side of the cup facing her.
Something loosened within Marius at the sight. He knew Odette wouldn’t hurt him, but the extra confirmation was what he needed.
“It’s safe, Mar-mar.” Luna smiled reassuringly at him, her hand laced through Sebastian’s. The royals stood a few feet behind Odette, their gazes heavier than normal. He didn’t mind the weight of their stares, though. At least they were looking at him and not Vivienne.