"Which one do you think suits me more?"

"Um...the blue one?"

Princess Sera made a face and picked back the light green dress. "Are you sure? I mean...with my ocher colored hair and brown eyes, which dress looks better?"

I stared at her, trying to understand why this Fae Royal was asking me suggestions on the dress she wished to wear the next day while I sat on a plush sofa with a plate of delicious looking cookies on it.

She blew a breath and shot me a smile. "I guess the blue is better."

If I didn't know better, I'd say she was making efforts at being friendly. 

With me.

Although I was treading carefully, the sense of comfort around her made me want to trust her. But could I? Should I? I'd never trusted a soul - besides Micah - and I wasn't about to start now only to set myself up for betrayal and dismay. That's not how you survive in Vammal as a human slave. Plus, one day had hardly passed and so far there hadn't been any movements. 

That doesn't mean Lucien had stopped in his efforts of increasing patrol or that Damien wasn't spending time with his father discussing stuff.

Or that Arion wasn't attending council meetings.

I bit into a cookie and Sera rolled her eyes. "It's good." I explained.

"Of course." She picked up one from the plate too and then sat down rather informally on her bed. "So what do you think of my brother?"

"Besides the fact that he's a flirt like Damien and likes calling me angel? Nothing really." I really really really need to stop being so blunt and honest around these few people.

Sadly that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

Sera chuckled. Then she sighed. "What about your parents?"

I kept my face impassive. "What about them?" She gave me an expectant look. "They were murdered when I was 12." I curtly replied and her brown eyes regarded me with sympathy that I brushed off. 

"Okay, so what's with that dagger?" She curiously looked at it and I smiled slightly. At both the fact that Seraphima had felt my discomfort and done a complete one-eighty on the topic and that the dagger made me remember my loving father.

"It was my father's." I felt my voice speaking softly. I ran a hand over the sharp blade, turning it over. There were shiny stones embedded in it. Like tiny diamonds and a few sapphires. It was breathtakingly beautiful and deadly. "I keep it on me always. My father made me learn how to use at least that. He was always there for me, putting me before himself."

Sera smiled warmly and her brown eyes twinkled. "He sounds amazing.....How about your mother?"

"She was just as wonderful and loving. She loved gardening and nature a lot too." I remembered, smiling in reverence. I wished I still had her ruby necklace but I don't know if its a good thing I don't have it or a bad. I miss it. It might not have been deadly like my Silern dagger but it was a belonging of my mother's that  brought me comfort. Like she was still there with me. Then again, I guess it's safer with him.

She made an awed face. Then a flash of sadness shone in her eyes and I caught it. Pouncing on that, I decided to fish out some information for my own self. "What about your parents?"

She looked at me sadly. "Our mother died giving birth to me. It was a miracle one of us survived. But our father only passed away a century after the Great Battle. So Arion's been shouldering the duties of a King for the past four hundred years."

I gave her an acknowledging nod. 

For some reason, her words sounded sincere. Yet there seemed to be more. But they managed to make me think that we both understood the loss of parents if not anything else. With each second I spent with her, her sincere efforts and genuine smile made me question myself.

 She made me want to call her my friend and tell her all my deepest secrets. But she was Fae. Royal. And I couldn't afford to get carried away. The con in her could be scheming and this nice persona could be just a cover.

Still, my heart seemed to refuse to accept that.

So far she was living up to her reputation of a nice and kind slave sympathizer. 

Before we could talk more, the door creaked opened and my heart skipped a beat. Sera gave me a teasing smile to which I gave her an incredulous look.

"Sera." I didn't turn around to face Arion but I had felt his presence. And though it wasn't me he was addressing, I could feel his eyes on me.

"Yes, brother dear?" Seraphima gave him an innocent look only a sister could manage and I bit back the urge to smile.

Arion rolled his eyes and I looked from my peripheral. Slowly turning, I faced him and gulped.

"I've posted five more guards outside your room. The witches, the rouge wolves and vampires will target you. Especially after today. They won't want us having an advantage over them in terms of strong illusion magic." Arion was serious and his grey eyes searched Sera's face. "And I'd rather my sister stay intact and in one piece." He gave her a rueful smile and I felt my heart squeeze. 

They both obviously shared a good bond.

Sera nodded, smiling softly. "I understand. I'll be fine though, don't worry."

Arion shook his head, "You and your candid behavior regarding your safety will get you seriously hurt someday." 

Obviously, this couldn't be the first time Sera was in such danger but Arion seemed to be taking it very seriously nevertheless.

She stood up and patted his chest in a motherly manner. "Be a dear, Arion and trust me to take care of myself."

He shot her a sarcastic look, "Over my dead body."

"Okay." Sera shrugged and looked at me, "Kill him with me?"

"Tempting offer. Could you add Lucien to the list?"

Sera nodded in understanding, "Of course."

"Why forget that bloodsucker then?" Arion piqued in reasonably.

I blinked and stared at him. 

Sera stared at him. 

He stared back. "What? I don't like Damien and now that we're on the topic of assassination, this seems perfectly reasonable." 

Worst part is he managed to sound actually reasonable.

And then we both ended up chuckling while Arion frowned.

Then Arion turned his eyes to me and my breath caught in my throat when his grey orbs held mine. "You should take care as well." He ran a hand through his russet hair.

But his words couldn't be more empty. In this Celeran Palace, safety wasn't something I had at all. I was food.

Regardless, I nodded hollowly. Bowing my head, I stood up and looked to Seraphima. "I'll be taking my leave then." Like a nice handmaiden, I started to walk out.

Arion didn't stop me but his eyes tracked my every move and Sera simply squeezed my hand once.

I don't know why but the gesture brought me both comfort and restlessness.It seemed to be preparing me for something.

•○•

Being a handmaiden to Princess Seraphima, one would have thought my living situations would have been upped but no. Nothing changed and the hay, hard ground and cold water from the pond in the back of the stables were still my home.

"Hey, Theo." I tiredly greeted him, the night starting out quite dark. 

Theo looked up from brushing Veta and flashed me a smile. "Tired?"

"As always. I'm gonna sleep early." 

He nodded in understanding and I headed to my 'bed'. Laying down and settling myself on the hay, I slipped a hand under my dress to hold the dagger. Closing my eyes, I tried to clear the mysteries from my head only to end up feeling the exhaustion from the days.

My eyelids fluttered closed.

And then I found myself in a familiar place.

"Go, Cara, now." My mother's voice was stern and brooking no argument when she pulled off her ruby necklace and tied it around my neck. Smiling softly at me, she kissed my forehead. "Run. Run and don't look back. They'll find you."

"No, Mother, I will not - "

"Yes, you will." My father entered the room, armed with a sword. My mother swallowed tightly. My father hugged me before handing me his dagger.

"Take care of this. And always know we love you, Cara. Despite everything, when the time comes, remember that and don't you dare blame yourself." My father held my shoulders and intently looked me in the eye. 

I breathed faster, my heart pounding.

The screaming outside increased and the fiery ring around the house flared higher.

"I love you both, too. But - "

"That is good enough." 

With those being his last words, he started to head out while my mother ushered me out the back door, that somehow was still not guarded and being overrun.

With one last goodbye, she left her twelve year old daughter to find her way in the dark. I felt sweat trickle down my forehead and the heat from the ring surrounding our house was immense. Suddenly, unfamiliar arms wrapped around me and I struggled but a voice hushed me, "Stay silent, Cara!"

I blinked. There were people hovering in the air and chanting with darkness engulfing them.

Dark Witches.

In my state I realized, I knew that voice because years later she was the one I called as Madam Belaura. The one who took me to the slave establishment. The one who handed me that perfume bottle. The one who'd been the strictest to me. Had taught me the ways of a slave. Had left me to fend for myself.

Just who was she then?

Belaura grabbed my arm and started to hurriedly take me to the forest behind the house. I glanced back to see my father running a sword through a vampire, my mother was chanting slowly and the fire in front of us was doused, simultaneously, the vampires were set on fire.

What the hell? 

I remember all theses parts of my memory being blurry. I couldn't place the voices, the names, the places, the people. But this time it was clear as day.

My breath hitched when I saw a vampire attack my father from behind, inserting a sword into his stomach and whispering something to him. In response to which my father growled and his sword glowed bright before he swung it at the said vampire who seemed to have been the leader of the ambushing party.

He skipped away unharmed and laughed. Suddenly the flames rose higher and I started to pant, "Stop, my parents-"

Belaura cut me off and made me look at her even as she increased our pace. My house seemed smaller and the scene got farther and farther away. "It is what it is. Things have changed now. We have to take a new course."

I didn't remember those words. In my memories they'd been garbled nonsense unlike right now. I was only feeling my chest hurt, knowing my parents were probably going to die inside that circle of fire in that place with about fifty witches, vampires and god knows what.

"Let. Me. Go." I gritted my teeth and dug my heels into the ground. 

Belaura's beady eyes glanced at me once and then she hissed in frustration. Suddenly her grip was tighter and much stronger. I couldn't compete with it with the strength of a twelve year old girl. 

My eyes widened and the last thing I remembered was my heart pounding in my chest as a scream in the familiar warm voice of my mother reached my ears. The melee subsided, the screams and noises lower and right before we vanished around the corner into unknown places I didn't bother knowing, I saw the leader vampire take out my father's beating heart.

Tears streamed down my eyes, my throat clogging up when the murderer glanced our way seemingly having realized something when my parent's distraction wore off.

I saw him flash me a bloody, fanged and promising smile from the distance. His red eyes bloodshot. That was a face I don't know how I forgot.

This was another thing which I hadn't been able to remember vividly, just bits and pieces of.

I felt fear creep in but we were actually pretty far and Belaura wasn't stopping. When I broke our contact, secure in the knowledge that my parents were dead - my breathing was labored and choked-  and I was out of harm's way temporarily, I only saw something akin to a portal my mother used to show me in books.

After I stepped through it at the final tug from Belaura, my life was nothing as I knew it.

And these memories of mine were gone.

I breathed sharply and jerked awake.

My mouth was dry like sandpaper, sweat running down my forehead and my back, my eyes wide open as I slightly shuddered. Fumbling, I grasped my bejeweled dagger, sighing in relief at the familiarity of the weapon.

With my heart still racing, I felt my eyes adjust to the darkness. I breathed in heavily and that's when it hit me.

It wasn't a vision.

No, it was a dream.

I never get dreams, only frequent nightmares for sure. Although this was no dream either but it was the last memory I had of my parents that is. 

Of their faces, their embraces.

Which is why I couldn't think of it as a nightmare. Yet the scream of my mother and my father's chest torn open weren't the best pictures. I shook my head. I'd never had those memories so vivid. They'd been blurry and so-so...so minute. But now I couldn't stop thinking of it.

Belaura.....what did she know about me? My parents? And that red eyed vampire. Why hadn't I been able to remember all this earlier? The mystery made my head ache. Why now?

I suppressed a violent shudder. 

Swallowing thickly, I heard commotion. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I frowned. 

I'd been immersed in my own little bubble so much that I didn't hear or see it until just now. The unmistakable noises of commotion and metal had me standing up on wobbly legs. 

What the fuck was happening?

There was light outside even in the dead of this dark night and I headed to the stable doors. 

"Oh, hey, Cara. I was just coming to wake you up." Theo was strapping on two swords and standing ready to depart. His candid tone made me give him an incredulous look momentarily.

My scowl deepened. "Theo, what's happening?"

The brown haired guy headed to the doors and I followed. A low growl was heard and I felt a chill travel down my spine. Something told me what I was about to see wasn't going to be good.

When I did see my blood ran cold.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

There in the distance stood a gathering of fifty supernaturals on one side. And on our there were about thirty - including the three ones standing in the the lead against one of the enemies. 

Arion, Damien and Lucien were in feral stances. Their powers brewing the air in chilling intensity and I shuddered at th thought of what they could do with that much power.

But I also noticed the disadvantages they had. 

A smaller army, no witches.....and definitely none of the feral looking huge werewolves that were circling around.

I gulped.

The scene made me feel an eerie feeling of deja vu.

And as Theo glanced at me sideways before leaving to join our defending army, he said, "We're under attack."

Genius. I hadn't figured that out by the looks of this.

Problem was that when I glanced back - I saw him.

I saw that bloody, fanged smile and I saw blood red eyes that had made a promise of utter pain and death to me five years ago. And behind him, I saw the floating witches and the other vampires. This time, accompanied by wolves as well.

With a sour taste in my mouth, I willed myself to look away. Clutching my dagger tightly, my eyes flitted to the first floor balcony of Princess Sera's room.

She would be in danger.

And for an unfathomable reason the thought of any harm coming to sweet Fae princess made my heart ache. So without another thought, if only to provide some assistance, I took my first steps out of the stables.

And with heavy breathing, I ran to Princess Seraphima's room. Something was telling me to go there.

Hoping I'd be in time.

And be out of the reach of the bloody vampire who had murdered my parents and was now standing a couple miles away - against three of the people that made my heartbeat skip. 

I should've known things wouldn't go right. Or get any less mysterious.

Because me getting that dream right before the recognizable face appeared right at the doorsteps of my current abode couldn't be a coincidence.

Then what was it? Fate?

More like pre-determined destiny.

•○•

AN~

Tell me the chapter was good and made some mysterious clearer?

Okay, I hope the latter didn't happen lmao. Anyways, thank you you all, we're so close to 3.5K reads and 1.2K votes!! Yay! Please keep it up and enjoy reading. Feel free as always to vote, comment, lemme know your thoughts or even slide into my dms lol.

What do you think about Cara's parents and the dreams? The mysterious red-eyed vampire? Ooohh Belaura, huh? And where is Cara headed to now? What awaits in Sera's bedroom?

So many questions, haha. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed. Oh and feel free to tag any of your friends you think would like my book! It'd be a nice way to spread it around so thank you in advance! ^_^ Till next time then!

~Skyler