- 41 -

Stifled tears sounded from beyond the cabin door. Pandora could tell from the cadence that Lilith was trying to fight back her emotions, but the emotions were winning. She gripped the doorknob and let out a deep breath. She didn't know what to say to Lilith, what she could say, only that she needed to try.

The creak of the door pulled Lilith's attention. Her crying halted, but the emotions behind it would be boiling beneath the surface. Judging by the look in her eyes, Pandora guessed they had been added to. Fear. Lilith's unease reflected back in her eyes.

The look turned her stomach.

Pandora took a step forward, then Lilith flinched. Even though she knew it would end up this way, it still hurt. To Pandora, the idea that she would ever hurt this woman was absurd, yet Lilith believed it. She had failed. All the time spent together, every conversation, had been meant to avoid this situation.

I just wanted Lily to realize she was safe in my arms, but she hasn't. And if I keep trying to be subtle, maybe she never will.

Pandora lowered herself onto the edge of the bed. Lilith shook. Careful not to startle her, Pandora crept her hand forward. Her thumb caressed Lilith's cheek, and her fingers nestled below her chin, gently guiding it up until their eyes met.

"Lily... I know you're scared, and that's all right, but I'm here now. I promise, as long as I'm around, I won't let anyone, or anything hurt you."

"But what if—"

Pandora leaned in and rested her forehead against Lilith's. "No matter what."

Silence lingered between them a moment, then it was replaced with the return of Lilith's tears. "Stay with me... Don't leave."

"I won't leave."

"Promise. Promise you won't leave me."

"I'm not going anywhere, Lily."

Desperate hands gripped around her biceps. "Then promise."

"I promise."

Pandora had said it with conviction, but she was worried Lilith still wouldn't accept it. The fidgeting of her fingers still gripped around Pandora's arms made her seem restless. Sure enough, after pulling herself closer to Pandora, Lilith said, "You didn't finish your story, right? The one with Renna."

"There's a little more."

"Tell me the rest. Please." Lilith's arms slipped around her and squeezed. "You can't leave until I know the end."

Pandora sighed. No use arguing; this was what she had wanted after all. Lilith not only felt safe with her, she was asking her not to leave. begging for the story because it meant she wouldn't be alone. It was cute in a way.

Still, Pandora wondered if it was a good idea. A story where a woman is killed for being a youkai? It didn't seem the best choice. But if it will convince Lily I'm on her side, I'll tell it.

Pandora pulled Lilith up into her lap, gave her a kiss on the top of the head, and started.

╔═══━━━─── 🌸 ───━━━═══╗

I don't know if it was the pain alone, or the tears it caused, but despite the throbbing coming from the left the vision in my right eye was failing. The small waiting room burred in and out, fading to full black at the crest of each heartbeat. I attempted to ignore the pain. Gritting my teeth, I tried to focus on the indistinct smudges lining the opposite wall, chairs I think, but before long I was doubled over, grasping at my eye socket.

I felt a gentle squeeze on my other hand. There wasn't much Renna could do for me, so she had been holding it while we waited. I appreciated the gesture, even though emotional support wasn't doing shit to stop the pain. That's why I didn't mind when she asked, "How are you feeling?" even though the answer was obvious.

"Like I've been shot in the head."

I felt her hand slip from mine, then press against my back. "Victor is the best chop-doc I know, but I doubt he's ever had to work like that before."

She was right. Preforming a graft is a complicated process. You couldn't ask any run of the mill street surgeon to do one blindfolded. Success in this case wasn't a gentle surgery or a easy recovery. It was a completed operation.

Renna pressed a blood vial into my palm. "Here, take this. It might help dull the pain a little."

I already had healing blood sloshing around in my gut. Drinking anything else would just dilute the effectiveness of both, switching randomly between the two effects until both were used up. It would trade faster healing for a little pain relief.

I nearly choked dumping the liquid down my throat. I was in no danger of dying and fuck if I didn't want to feel even a little better.

"I hope you know I'm proud of you."

Renna's words were accompanied by a weight at my scalp. Not the hair rustling that usually signaled her approval. Instead, she had placed her hat atop my head.

I reached up and gripped the brim. "What are—"

"It's a gift."

I turned toward Renna, her face beginning to fight through the blur as the blood took hold.

"Coming back to Eden was dangerous. We have a lot of enemies here. But you thought it was the best way to save that girl, so you did it anyway."

"I was worried at first. I didn't think you would agree with me."

She took my hand again and gave it a gentle squeeze. "That only makes you more brave. You've grown into a fine witch. From today, you are no longer my apprentice; we hunt as partners."

That span of seconds was the happiest I've ever been, before or since. The kind of moment where the emotions overflow as tears. But it wasn't meant to last. I don't remember what I planned to say to her next. I only remember being interrupted by the chime of a bell.

We turned to find the main door held open by a tall slim man. Due to the distance he was little more than a featureless silhouette to my eye. A black shadow in the shape of a man. But the white of his smile poked through the darkness.

"Having a little work done?" he asked. His voice was like distiled confidence. He drew closer, boots clicking against the tile with each step. As he approached all I could focus on was that smile. It was wrong somehow. Too gleeful. I knew in my heart this man was dangerous.

Renna's grip tightened around my hand. She had picked up on it too; his menacing aura. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

"Me? I am but a humble man of God."

That was all he needed to say to justify our apprehension. A hunter had found us, and who knows how many he brought with him. In an instant, Renna and I were on our feet readying for a fight. The smiling man's grin held strong even as we readied our weapons. The reason became clear as his backup flooded into the room. A dozen white clad men and women took position beside him, forming a semi-circle around us.

The numbers difference would have made the fight difficult on any day, but they had come at the worst time. What could I do while dizzy, half-blind, and still in pain from surgery? It wasn't thirteen on two, it was fourteen on one. I was a liability to Renna, and they knew it.

"Focus the one on the left. The girl in the hat is little threat."

I heard a gulp beside me. Renna taking some kind of blood for the fight to come. With a full cocktail already floating around inside me I didn't have that option. Just one more way I was holding her back. My first fight as her so called equal and—

╚═══━━━─── 🌸 ───━━━═══╝

The story fell away as Pandora felt the first tears roll down her cheek. She wanted Lilith to know, but she wished it could be anyone else telling her. Revisiting those memories was eating away at her. If only she had been stronger, Renna might still be—

Lilith ran her thumb across Pandora's cheek, wiping her tears away.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You loved her... No, you still love her."

Pandora reached up and mirrored the gesture, running her thumb along Lilith's cheek. "Thank you."

Lilith nestled her head into Pandora's chest and held her tight. "What happened next? If you're still willing to continue."

"I'll keep going. As long as you promise to be here to wipe away my tears."

Lilith nodded into her chest.

╔═══━━━─── 🌸 ───━━━═══╗

The hunters rushed Renna. It was so fast that she was surrounded before the first gunshot went off. Red sprayed out, speckling the tile floor, then one of the hunters fell clutching at their thigh. I watched them writhe around for just a moment before the second gunshot pulled my attention. This time, none of the attackers fell. They hand wrestled her arm up, sending the bullet harmlessly into the ceiling. There was a shout and then the gun was knocked away, clattering to the ground.

I pulled my revolver and rushed forward. There was no plan; no strategy. That would require thinking and I didn't have time for that. Renna was losing and I had to do something, anything, but in the end, I did nothing. Something hit me on the side of the head. My blind spot.

It was my only chance and I failed because I didn't see the strike coming.

I slammed back into one of the chairs, crumpling the metal beneath me. My gun flew from my grip and skittered off somewhere. I pushed myself up an arms length from the floor. Enough to watch the blood trailing down my face drip from my chin and land in a pool below me. The stitches had broken open.

Renna called my name as I pulled myself back onto my feet. I wobbled, nearly falling back to my knees, but I steadied myself in time to watch her dragged through the door by eight or nine hunters. The smiling man followed after them but paused at the door way, turning back to address the rest of his crew.

"You're in charge of the whelp. Take her alive. The bishop wants a public execution."

Then he stepped out into the street. He had taken Renna and left a few minions to handle me. They stepped forward, closing in on me. Of course, I had no interest in wasting time with them. I burst forward, trying to make it to the door. I managed to duck under a set of arms, but one of them grabbed a fistful of hair. I was ripped back and I landed on my ass.

The closest hunter rushed me. I kicked forward. The blow landed at his ankle and sent him tumbling down on top of me. His chest landed against my raised knee, knocking the fight out of him, but there was still his weight to contend with. I don't know where I pulled the strength from, but I managed to push up and roll him away.

Another hunter gripped at my upper forearm. A young woman this time. I reached over and took hold of a finger, pulling it up and back until I heard bone snap. It was enough to release her grip for a moment, but I think it only drove her to fight harder.

By that point the man had caught his breath and was standing back up as well. I hopped to my feet and started to shuffle backwards. I needed to find my gun, or Renna's. Anything I could use as a weapon.

Before I could look around, a hand gripped me from behind, wrapping around my face. It stole what was left of my vision and sent a fresh jolt of agony pulsing on my left side. For the second time in a row, I had been attacked from my blind spot.

Panic took hold. I kicked and screamed, trying anything to get free. In the end, my thrashing did nothing. The hand slipped away on it's own, and the view from beyond it's fingers was my attackers, eternally frozen in stone.

I spun on my heels. "Medusa!"

She had already tucked her gorgon eye behind a leather patch. Only my own eye, freshly grafted, was all that stared back at me. I had been saved, but I didn't care about myself.

"What's going on? Where's Renna?" she asked.

My whole body bounced with nerves. My face curled in on itself before I managed to blurt out an explanation. "Medusa, they took Renna! Hunters!"

We rushed outside but the hunters were gone. They had long since vanished down some side street or another. The blood cocktail in my stomach was at risk of coating the street. The person I loved most was gone. I felt hopeless.

I turned back to Medusa. "We have to find them. We have to—"

She grabbed my shoulder. "Pandora, you're bleeding badly. We need to go inside and have the doctor stitch you back up."

I pushed her hand away, furious. "How can you even say that? You're gonna let them get away?"

"That's not what I'm—"

"Then help me!" My body gave out on me as the the adrenaline started to fade. I fell to my knees, tears and blood streaking down my face. My voice dropped to the edge of nothingness as I added, "Please."

Medusa's gaze fell away. Her hand drifted up and traced around her new eye. My eye.

"Pandora—"

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"I love her."

Silence lingered between us, then she knelt down and hugged me.

"You'll see her again, I promise. I'll find her. Do everything I can to figure out where they took her. But you can't fight like this. Please come inside."

There wasn't really a choice. She told me I couldn't fight, but in my state I couldn't even stand. My legs shook like a newborn animal. All I could do was trust her to find Renna, then I would bring her back.

To her credit, Medusa turned out to be suited to information dealing. While Victor stitched my eye back up, she had me detail our previous encounters with the hunters. She stopped me after sixty seconds. As soon as she heard about Bones, the most vile self-serving grin warped her face. I had seen it a hundred times on various brokers across the city. She was a natural; a prodigy.

She left right away, eager to visit the remnants of his office. I don't know exactly what she found inside, but apparently, there was more than enough information to start negotiating with. Intel bought and sold with secrets and contacts acting as the capital. She discovered where they were holding Renna with ease.

The hard part was convincing me not to go. Renna was locked deep below the Cathedral of the True Creator. Apparently, there was a crypt built underneath it at some point and they were using it as a makeshift prison. I had it in my head that I could break her out, but Medusa was right. The True Creationists were one of the most popular sects in Eden, and they had by far the most hunters. If I had gone, I never even would have seen the outside of the church.

It was endlessly frustrating to be so powerless, but there was still hope. They wouldn't kill her in her cell. They wanted a public execution, a time and date had already been set. They couldn't show up without the star of the show. Medusa managed to get word on the route they planned to take. When the time came for them to transport her, that's when I would rescue her.

╚═══━━━─── 🌸 ───━━━═══╝

Pandora swallowed. The words were coming harder now. They had flowed so easily when she started, but that was all context. Those memories hadn't healed properly, but at least they had scarred. Now, Pandora had reached the open wound. The shard of glass still lodged in her heart.

"Pandora?"

Shit. I paused for too long. Lily must have noticed. "Sorry, I got... lost in my thoughts."

Lilith looked up, concern painting her face. Pandora turned away from the stare. Haven't I worried Lily enough already? Gentle lines traced across her forehead, snapping her from her thoughts. Lilith brushed her hair away, tucking it behind her ear, then leaned up to plant a kiss at the corner of her eye.

"There was a tear forming, but I got it for you."

Pandora's heart raced. All the women she had been with since losing Renna and not once had she come close to feeling this way.

I love this woman.

╔═══━━━─── 🌸 ───━━━═══╗

We spent the week leading up to the execution to scout the route. We found a spot where the convoy would pass through a narrow alleyway. If we blocked off the far end they would be trapped. The space was too small to turn a motor carriage around and they wouldn't be able to back it out before we overtook them. And that wasn't even the greatest advantage the spot granted us.

The abandoned warehouse forming the alley's northern wall was damaged. The stonework on the upper floor had been neglected and crumbled away, exposing what had once been a storage room to the elements. A massive opening overlooking the path Renna would take. When the fight started, we would have the high ground. It was the perfect place for an ambush.

The day before I spent hours setting a trap. I busted out a few windows, then ran a beam through them, bridging the two buildings. It was the attachment point for the pulley that would be holding our roadblock. With the help of some blood, I stacked as much weight as I could onto a steel platform and hoisted it up above the alley.

Everything was set. As soon as that carriage traveled down the narrow path all we would need to do is cut the rope. The platform would drop, blocking the path forward. Hopefully smashing a few of those bastards at the same time. Then I would be back with Renna again.

I was actually naive enough to believe it would work.

I set out early the next morning with Medusa. We wanted to be in position ahead of time, in case they reached the alley early. I crouched down behind the remnants of the missing wall and watched for their approach. Medusa was in the next room, ready to cut the rope on my signal.

I grew more anxious with each minute sat in that old warehouse, staring at crumbling stone and rotting crates turned green from the weather. Thinking about Renna. All the days we had spent together. Praying to a God I didn't believe in to just give her back to me.

It was hours before they finally arrived. I watched their group turn in and start down the alley. One motor carriage, with two hunters on foot guarding the front, and two more guarding the rear. Judging by its size, the carriage could hold maybe three or four more. Too many to take on. I needed to make sure the trap took out at least the first two guards.

I waited breathlessly for the lead men to march into the drop zone. Each step pressing in on my heart until it was ready to implode. It felt as if twenty feet would last an eternity. But finally, they were close enough.

"Medusa, cut the rope!"

I pierced my thumb and readied a curse. The sound of impact would be my cue to cast.

Nothing.

"Medusa! The Rope!"

There was a loud crash, not from the alley but from Medusa's position. Another crash, then grunts. Medusa's voice cried out, "You bastard, get off of mmMMMfff"

"I'm afraid her meeting with my friend is running a bit late."

Panic stung my veins. The voice, warm and playful, spoke directly into my left ear. I jumped away, spinning to meet the familiar face. The smiling man stood with his hands in his pockets, his cocksure grin taunting me for my inattention. I hadn't heard a footstep, or an exhale. Nothing. It should have been impossible to move anywhere in that old warehouse without the floor creaking. And somehow he managed to get into my blind spot completely unnoticed.

I trembled with rage. "You... How did you—"

"How did we know? Who do you think leaked the transport route?"

Bile rose in the back of my throat. We had been played from the start. This bastard had taken Renna from me with ease then he pulled me out of hiding by dangling her in front of my face. He didn't think I could take her back; thought he could do anything he wanted. He was using me for cheap entertainment.

I pulled my hand into a tight fist. I would prove him wrong.

I jumped forward and drove my punch through a moss-green crate. I blinked. That had been him only seconds before.

"You don't think I'd come unprepared do you?"

I spun to find him leaning against the far wall. He raised his hand to mimic a yawn. Cocky bastard. Still, he had taken some kind of blood enhancement. I didn't know what he could do yet. I needed to proceed with caution.

I held him steady in my view and reached for my weapon. My vision winked out. In an instant, his hand had clutched my face. He squeezed, reigniting the pain in my eye socket. Apparently, a week wasn't enough to heal it even with blood.

He lifted me from my feet and threw me. A bolt of lightning erupted through my thigh and up my spine. My knee took the brunt of the landing. The pain struck me and I tried to scream but he was already on top of me, hands at my throat. I struggled in vain to throw him off. His hands dug in deeper. I was losing air fast.

Just before the world prepared to blink out he said, "Why fight it? Your teacher misses her favorite little pet. Don't you want to see her again? I'm such a nice guy I'll even tie you to the same pyre so you can die together."

A flood of rage washed over me, bringing me both a moment of clarity and the strength to act on it. The runes on my arm were still linked. It was hard to squeeze the words past his fingers to my mouth, but I did it anyway. They weren't needed, but Renna always spoke them, so I did too.

"There's a weight hanging over me. Easy to see, it shouldn't be. Nothing to do, but let it come down on top of you."

For a moment, his smile faded, replaced with confusion. "What are you—"

His question was cut off by a loud crack from above. The threads had already reached the rotting beam above us, filling it with my malice. The wood splintered. A fissure formed, splitting from the top and running through to the center. Not enough to cut through completely, but leaving just enough material to act as a hinge when the wood at the far end ripped away from the nails. The smiling man looked up in time to see the beam swing down like a pendulum and smash into his face.

He flew off of me and landed several feet away, in front of the open wall. The air rushed back into my lungs and I hopped to my feet. Killing him in a straight fight would have been impossible for me. I needed to end things before he regained his composure.

He climbed slowly to his feet. Blood poured from his mouth and when he spit, several small white chunks were mixed in with the red. I took a certain pleasure in having knocked the smile off his face, but I wasn't done. I held ready, waiting for my chance.

The smiling man looked down at a trembling hand, then wiped the back of it against his lips, staining the skin. "You fucking bitch!"

His head shot up. He glared at me with venom in his eyes, but I had been waiting for it. He wasn't the only one that could glare. I lifted my eye patch and watched his form gray and solidify. My eye reducing a cunning foe to a dumb piece of rock.

Horrible pain exploded through my head, radiating out across my whole body. I crashed to my knees clutching at my eye. Even through the soft leather of the eye patch, I could feel something was wrong. The fresh skin that traced the surgery scar had calcified and gone hard.

As my mind raced trying to make sense of what happened, I heard a loud crash. The trap we had set outside had fallen. Even though moving my head drove me to the edge of vomiting, I looked over to the doorway. Was Medusa safe?

I didn't know how I would manage to pull myself to my feet, but I needed to check. I was scared. I couldn't lose someone else. Luckily, she hobbled to the entrance before I finished standing. The relief was so strong that for a moment the pain in my eye went unnoticed. Then I saw the blood soaked into her shirt.

"Are you okay? What happened?" I asked, trying to take a step toward her. Vertigo made sure it was my last step for a while.

"A man attacked me from behind. He must have known about me because he put a bag over my head. He was safe from turning to stone. Too bad for him he didn't realize I had a knife."

Medusa turned to what was left of the smiling man. To anyone else, it would have been an eerie sight. A granite statue dressed in human clothes. A bright red smudge on the back of its sculpted hand. But she understood what it meant.

"Seems he didn't know that you're just as dangerous now."

"Is it supposed to hurt so much? I can't even think straight."

"What? No." Medusa rushed over and ran a finger along my eye. It flared the pain, but compared to what I first felt, it was nothing. The worst of it was behind me.

"Some of the skin around your eye has stiffened up, and a bit of your hair has gone gray." She rolled a few of the strands between her fingers. "They're still flexible, but they feel gritty. Like sand in a bag."

I didn't know what to think. I had been dosing Medusa's blood, same as you would do with any grafted body part. I wasn't feeling rejection sickness. But it seemed that the eye had started to petrify me too.

"I think it's best you keep that eye tucked away, Pandora."

"You think it would petrify me completely?"

"Better not to find out."

I nodded in agreement. Less because she was right, even though she was, but because we still needed to rescue Renna. That took priority. I rushed over to the open wall and looked to the alley below. Our trap had sprung way too late. The motor carriage had passed through unharmed and continued to the execution grounds.

"Fuck!" My heart shattered. The fight had happened so fast I thought there was still some hope. That maybe the smiling man hadn't ruined everything. I turned to him, trembling.

"You fucking bastard!"

He had stolen everything from me, then kept me from getting it back. Death wasn't good enough for him. I reared back and kicked his chest as hard as I could. He wobbled back and forth, then fell backwards out of the building. I didn't bother to watch him hit the ground. Not even the sound of him shattering gave me any satisfaction.

"I'm going after her," I said.

"You can't."

My blood caught fire. I spun around and screamed, "I can and I will."

I couldn't believe she would even say that to me. How many times did I have to say it? I loved Renna and I wasn't going home without her. I would fight until the last second. My hands pulled into tight fists. I would fight her too if she tried to stop me.

In a way, she did try to stop me. She wrapped her arms around me, one hand at my back, the other stroking the back of my head.

"I know it's hard. We failed, and for that I'm sorry. But she's gone."

I pushed hard, knocking her to the ground. "How fucking dare you! She's not gone. And I'm not giving up on her."

"There's going to be dozens of hunters at that execution. How do you plan to deal with them all?"

"I'll turn them to stone."

"You'll turn Renna to stone."

"She knows about the graft. She'll close her eyes."

"You'll turn yourself to stone."

That I couldn't argue. My eye had definitely had some effect on me. I didn't know how it worked. Maybe it was a fluke and would never happen again. Maybe it was consistent but would only petrify what was in front of its sight, my eyelids and a few strands of hair. But just as easily the petrification could overtake my whole body and kill me. The problem was, that didn't matter to me then.

"You're not stopping me this time."

"If we go they're going to kill us."

"If I die making sure she lives that's good enough."

Her jaw clenched. "Fine. If you want to go commit suicide, I won't stop you. But I'm not running off to die with you. I've done enough."

My emotions were high at the time, but I've spent a decade regretting what I said next. "Oh, you've done enough all right! They only captured her because we came back to Eden for you. Sparing your life was a mistake."

The hurt was clear in her eyes. I relished it in that moment, and it's haunted me ever since. I stabbed her in the heart because I was angry, and because it was the easy way out I had convinced myself that she was the one I was angry at. That it wasn't my own weakness that upset me. Or how I had never told Renna how I felt before potentially losing her forever. It was Medusa's fault for needing my help.

I didn't give her the chance to respond. I turned and jumped through the open wall, landing in the alley with a tumble, then started running. I needed to hurry if I was going to make it to the execution in time while on foot.

By the time I arrived, the crowd was already thick around the raised platform. I shoved my way through the throng to grab a position at the front. I stumbled out into an empty space between the spectators and the stage. A hunter shoved me back into the mass of people behind me. He was one of dozens of identically dressed men holding a line between the crowd and the execution platform.

I looked past him and found Renna at the center of the platform, tied to a massive post. She stood on a massive bed of tinder. For a moment, our eyes met, then she turned her focus away. Maybe she simply meant to avoid revealing my position, but I thought I saw disappointment in her eyes.

"She can be disappointed in me all she wants when she lives," I mumbled to myself.

I turned my attention to the two men on stage beside her. A tall older man, dressed in neat black, much like the smiling man had been. It gave him an air of authority, or maybe it was the graying hair that gave the impression he was in charge. On the other side of Renna was a man wearing the same stark white as the rest of the hunters. Well, more of a boy really. He was small and scrawny, but the unlit torch in his hand made him an important target.

The man and black clicked a pocket watch closed and turned to the torchbearer. "It's nearly time. Let's get started." Then he raised his voice to carry to the other hunters circled around. "You all know what to do."

The men that had formed the barrier between crowd and executioners stepped forward and pushed their way into the throng. They pushed both men and boys away, but snatched at the women. A scream sounded beside me and I turned to find a woman struggling against the hunter that had pushed me earlier. He ripped at her sleeves, pulling the fabric up to expose the skin.

They were checking for tattoos.

I dipped back into the crowd and crouched down. The hunters were searching for me, and it wouldn't be long before they found me. I needed to prepare a curse quickly. I tried to run through the impending fight in my head a few times. I wouldn't have time to cast a second curse, so the one I chose needed to matter.

From the execution platform, Renna said, "You're wasting your time. She isn't here."

I peeked through the gaps in shuffling bodies and watched the torch flick to life. The torchbearer pressed the lit end to Renna's face. She strained her neck to avoid letting the flames lick at her flesh.

As she writhed the torchbearer laughed, then he said, "It must hurt then. Knowing your little whelp ran off and left you to die."

I clenched my jaw, then linked the runes. I had decided which hex I would use.

"She knows I don't want her here," Renna said. "I taught her so she could live for herself, not die for me."

I froze. Renna wasn't trying to throw them off my trail. She was telling me to leave. Was she really willing to die just so I would be safe? I started to doubt what I was doing. But wasn't it the same for me? She was more important to me than I was to myself.

Besides, I wasn't her apprentice anymore; I didn't have to listen to her. I was able to make my own decisions. Do what I thought was best. And I knew if I didn't at least try I would regret it for the rest of my life.

I raised my hand up, prepared to unleash my curse when a hand clutched my shoulder. I had taken too long. The hunters had found me. I turned, but instead of a man in white, I was being held by a woman in a cloak. A single blue eye peered out at me from under the hood.

"You're not going to stop me, Medusa."

"I didn't come to stop you. I came to try and keep you alive. So do whatever you're going to do."

She gave my shoulder a small squeeze. I looked up at her and caught a slight smile under the veil of darkness. I nodded, grateful that she accepted my feelings. I knew it was a bad idea just as well as she did, but I had to try anyway.

I focused all my hatred onto the torchbearer. "Become fuel, feed the fire. Drown in flames, in agony mire."

The curse formed in my palm. I willed the threads forward and they shot out, aimed at the torch. Their tendrils wrapped the flame, then traced a path up to the torchbearer's face. Fire flowed across the threads like water through a riverbed. The crowd erupted into chaos at what must have looked to them like spontaneous combustion.

"She's here!" cried the man in black. He jumped from the platform and joined his men in the crowd. They wanted more than ever to find me, but they would have a harder time now that the crowd pushed back and forth like waves in a storm.

The torchbearer's screams drew my attention. My heart stopped when I watched him extinguish the flames I had set on him. My curse hadn't been strong enough. Even though at least half of his face was charred and black, he still managed to reach down and retrieve the torch he had dropped.

I cried out, "Renna, no!" It probably gave away our position in the crowd, but I couldn't have cared less. I watched helpless as the torchbearer lit the pyre. I tried to rush forward, but a hand wrapped around my wrist. Medusa. She pulled me back deeper into the crowd. All I could do was watch as the flames grew and overtook Renna. Then she called across the crowd. Renna's final words for me.

"I love you, Pandora."

╚═══━━━─── 🌸 ───━━━═══╝

Pandora looked down ensuring she had Lilith's full attention for the end of the story. It had been difficult to tell but she was almost done. Then she could tell Lily the truth.

They both jumped at a sudden knock on the cabin door. One that soon turned into desperate pounding. Pandora leaned over and pulled the door open. It was the little suck-up, Stanford... or something like that. He looked sickly pale and he was panting. Had he run the whole way to the room?

"Something's happened," Pandora said. Not a question, but an expression of fact.

The man's mouth trembled before the words finally pushed their way out. "It's Allister... He's dead."