Leilani.

My head was spinning, point blank.

My vision was blurry and my head was spinning so much, I could barely make out the shape of anything or the sound of anything— well besides the sound of my heart as it pounded wildly against my ribcage like a possessed wild bird in a cage.

My mouth was dry and bitter. But that wasn’t all. Hell, it was nothing compared to the searing hot pain burning its way through the back of my leg and spreading even up to my thighs and waist.

My breath caught when Caelum held me close, his warm breath tickling my face as he drawled; "there, there, baby... keep your eyes open and on me. Don’t you dare sleep on me right now."

And I swear I wanted to.

I swear I really wanted to do nothing but watch his handsome face until the day bled into another one and until all of these miraculously disappeared into nothing but fairy dust.

But it didn’t... I couldn’t.

And that is not because I couldn’t bring myself to, but because I was acutely aware of the looming presence behind me.

Her aura was unmistakably dark and sinister, filling me with horror even without being close. And as if reading through my thoughts, I felt her fingers— cold and stiff, trail along my body as she came to stand beside Caelum and me.

"Touché," she said again, softly this time as if quietly making a mockery of my situation.

When her eyes met mine for the 1000th time, I couldn’t help but shiver at the darkness I found swirling around her... wait are those turquoise contacts lenses?

"Yes, they are..." she hissed, "they are recommended."

Did I say that out loud?

"Yes, you did." She answered again, shocking me. "Those are weird things for you to be thinking about at a time like this."

Her words made my jaw hang slack. My body trembled as I came to look at her— like really look at her, only to me met with darkness and hostility.

Her fingers trailed up my arm... up and up until she reached my chin where she stopped and stared so deep into my eyes, you would think she was here with the intention to peer into my soul.

She hissed; "you should be asking why you can no longer think to yourself without being heard—"

"That’s because I can’t do that right without saying it out loud right?" I snapped, interrupting her and she nodded once.

"I figured that since one of the deadliest weapons in all of history cannot just seem to weaken you once and for all, then it’s just right that I hurt you so badly, all your thoughts scatter and disintegrate."

I flinched at her callous use of those very frightening words, my body shaking slightly when Caelum staggered only a little.

His hands shot out to grab both sides of my waist, and it wasn’t until then that I noticed how hard he was finding it to breathe. My breath caught as I glanced at a smug smiling Keisha and when I looked up to see his red face, my eyes thinned.

"What is it?" I hissed,

"I don’t know..." he clapped back, sounding gruffer than he usually would. "I am in pain."

His response made me turn to Keisha who shrugged then, her eyes filled with glee as she muttered; "yeah, he’s in pain. You heard him. What are you going to do, Cinderella?"

I still couldn’t understand what was happening. I mean, one minute, he had been the one protecting me, shielding me... keeping me standing; and now, he was literally hanging onto me, breaking out in cold sweat because he’d been hit with only God knows what.

He broke out into a cold sweat and it wasn’t until that moment that I realized that his other brothers were just the same, even Jared who had taken so long to come awake seemed like he was about to sink under one more time.

However, do you know the only difference between them and him?

And when I say ’him’, I mean Caelum...

They had nothing to lean on to so they were basically on the floor.

I stilled.

"What did you do, Keisha?"

"Nothing!" She answered airily. "I am only giving you a glimpse of what real loss means."

Huh?

Those words made my heart sink into the bottom of my stomach. It made my body thrum with both pain and worry.

I groaned as I took a step forward, dragging Caelum with me as I hissed in her face; "What did you do to them?"

"What I did to you." She replied easily. "I injected them with a very high dose of liquid silver."

Those words made my world tilt and stop. It made my entire body quake with terror. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to smack her right in the face. To scratch her eyes out and hit her so hard, she would develop a concussion.

But for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to move. Hell, even speaking felt like a lot of work.

I gulped.

"You know, I love how speechless you are right now," she snickered with a smile, "...but I still cannot ascertain if that’s because you know you’ve reached your end or if it is just the pain messing with your head."

Goddess, it was so obvious that she was having fun. She was revelling in my agony.

"And as for them, they are probably going through what you are going through right now, the only difference is that you are a freak and none of what I do has any lasting effect on you."

I tried to shield Caelum with my body but I was too weak. I hissed; "they didn’t do anything to you. You should leave them out of it."

"And do you think you did anything to me?" She snapped back sassily, and when I didn’t respond right away, she continued; "You didn’t. You only won over Jarek’s affection, and even while I try to convince myself that that is the main reason behind my daughter’s death, I know deep down that it is false. So Leilani, you didn’t hurt me... not directly anyways, I simply hate your guts."

"Oh,"

"And if I cannot have Jarek for myself then no one else would have him too."

The selfish bitch.

The maniacal look in her eyes as she said those words were enough to get anyone running for the hills but not me.

"I understand," I said softly, "but please, let them go."

Before I said that, her face had been twisted into a look of pain. Hell, if I didn’t know better then I would’ve thought that she was rethinking her actions. However, as soon as I uttered those placating words, her facial expression shifted into something so dark it looked like the cloud on a stormy night.

She sneered under her breath; "still acting so high and mighty."

I didn’t respond.

I mean, how do I respond to that?

How do I tell her that I didn’t feel that way without annoying her more than I already have.

I was however snapped out of this thought when she pulled out a gun, aimed it at my head and seethed; "I’m done playing these games. I really wanted to mess with you further but you’re no fun."

I gulped. "Keisha..."