Aed Ruad stared at his sister. And he continued to stare at her for a long time, till his eyes hurt, till his chest hurt, till every breath he took hurt. "She's dead," he whispered. 

"She should have died earlier!" came his mother's voice. And for the first time, Aed Ruad lost control. He got up, swung behind and slapped his mother across her face. Etaya fell on her ass some two yards away, her face imprinted with his fingers' mark. 

Fury boiled her blood as she stared at him with shock. It was for the first time he had hit her and Etaya was… scared. 

Aed Ruad stepped closer to her and then knelt down in front of her. He grabbed her braid tightly and pulled her head behind. "She was your daughter and not a pawn on the battlefield. And she died because of your ambitions. And here you are saying that she should have died earlier?" He pressed his claw in her chest and drew out blood. "You will regret it!" He shoved her to the ground and then walked back to his dead sister. "There's a letter from Anastasia still lying on the floor of the carriage. Read it." He lifted his sister in his arms, he walked out of the tent and Etaya knew that he was going back with Maple to Vilinski. 

She rushed after him but by the time she went to him, he had flared his wings wide open and shot in the night sky. Etaya stomped the ground and screamed, "Come back, you moron!" At first, she thought she should go after him but then she remembered Iona. Where was she now? She rushed back to the grounds where the fae soldiers were fighting against the Mozias. And there were hardly any left. Iona was nowhere. Dead bodies littered the place, all around the carriage. A few Mozias were hovering around it, looking wildly for the enemy. Etaya just turned around and fled. She went back to the campsite and ordered the remaining soldiers to wind up. 

As they packed, she couldn't help but think that it was Iona's plan and the dark witch failed to deliver. For that she deserved solid punishment. 

--- 

Iona took Circe to her cave. Anger consumed her completely and she snapped Circe's neck from her body. As the neck rolled down on the ground, she hissed, "You are of no use to me!" She had planned and planned and had finally thought that her scheme was coming to fruition, but— but the tables turned. Agitated, she was about to kick Circe when she noticed a piece of parchment roll jutting out from the inside of her dress. She knelt on the side of her body where the blood flowed in rivulets and pooled. The parchment was pinned to the dress. Carefully, she extracted it and rolled it out. It was a letter from Adrianna,

"Iona,

(I can't even call you dear daughter)

Did you think that we weren't watching the movement on the west side of Draoidh's border? Of all the things I considered you, I never thought you would be such a fool. Know this that I have my eyes on you. I lost you once and you turned into a monster and now… now I won't lose my focus. Oh, and I wanted to tell that it was Circe who helped Etaya in kidnapping you when you were a child. 

Adrianna, Queen of Draoidh"

Iona crushed the letter and threw it over Circe. Shock was an understatement. Her mother's words played in her mind, 'Circe who helped Etaya in kidnapping you when you were just ten'. 

Circe helped Etaya… 

Circe.

Iona pointed her fingers and released her darkness from her body. It turned into black worms when they landed on Circe's body and began eating it. "Eat every bit of her and—" her words were cut off when suddenly her Master appeared in the cave. "Master!" Iona watched him, stunned. He had made an appearance after two long years. "Master!" 

The man whose shadowy silhouette was visible in the dark lights exploded with magic so poisonous that it covered the floors and the walls of the cave into red and yellow lights. The cave was instantly filled with the stench of his thick mucus like sickly magic. 

Iona froze. "I— I am sorry Master," she said in a hoarse voice as she watched the monstrous form of her Master who was a spirit. His face was as if someone had stretched skin over bones. His fangs lengthened and tentacles from his back snapped towards her, lashing her, feeling her, gliding over her. And Iona—she sat still, waiting for her punishment, as she always did when her Master was angry. Right now she didn't know why he was angry with her, and she didn't ask. 

The touch of tentacles was like a thousand shards of small blades forged in fire. They slithered over her skin, whispering what he wanted, what he found about her and why she should be punished. "Sleep," he hissed. "Sleeeeep," the tentacles whispered. 

Iona's eyes transfixed into nothing. Sleep instantly took over and she dropped on the ground. 

For what seemed like eternity of being flogged by invisible whips, when Iona woke up, her entire body was aching and paining. There were cuts and nicks on her skin and blood was flowing out of them in rivulets upon a cold floor. Her darkness had slithered away and she was in her human form. She knew that she was punished. Whenever she did something that angered the Master, she found herself in this situation when she woke up next. Iona was in a small windowless room with no bed. Only a pitcher of water in the corner and a small orb of light on the ceiling were her companions. She crawled up to a wall and leaned against it. Her chemise was soaked in blood. "I am sorry Master…" she whispered. She knew that she had to wait for him to calm down. He would release her… eventually. She closed her eyes and focused on healing herself. 

Be steady. Be steady. 

--- 

Anastasia was sitting on her bed with closed eyes, recalling all that happened at the feast of their wedding. It was a tiresome day. Her wedding had been quite an affair. Circe had tried to sabotage it but the way Ileus and Haldir deftly took charge of the situation. 

All these days when Ileus was in the study, he was charting out the plans, reading the maps and traversing through various tunnels that were underneath the Levels two and three. Every tunnel was marked and mapped. Many were sealed or destroyed. Entire activity was carried out discreetly and other than Adrianna, Dmitri, Haldir and her, no one knew as to what was going on. Sudden raids were carried out on establishments. The most scandalous was that on Circe's house. She lived alone in her house and practiced necromancer magic.

Adrianna was extremely shocked because she could never detect that a minister was practicing it and at first, she wanted to behead her, but Ileus had other plans. Solon was caught for colluding with Circe for trying to topple the queen. 

"What are you thinking, love?" his deep throaty voice came from her side. She opened her eyes to meet his golden ones. 

"About you." 

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