- He’s probably happy with her now. - she mumbled softly.

- What are you talking about? - Adeline asked.

- About Raphael and Giselle. - she grinned. – A thought flashed through my mind about what would happen if I returned to him.

- Are you crazy? Have you forgotten what that monster did to you? - she raised her voice, indignant.

- Don’t swear. - she nudged her with her shoulder. – I know myself that these are stupid thoughts. But I can’t help myself, his image stands so clearly before my eyes that my heart begins to live its own life from the mind. I understand that he is now married, but suddenly...

- ...

- Suddenly, purely hypothetically, just if you imagine that what he told me is true? What if he doesn’t love her?

She suddenly laughed unexpectedly, so bitterly and sadly.

- It’s really stupid. - She tilted her head back, looking at the dark starry sky. – I know I’m acting like a fool and there’s no turning back, but it still worries me so much. Is there a way to just forget about everything?

- Who said there is no way back? You know, I’m totally against you going back to him, but I’m also against doing something with your memories and feelings. It’s a part of you, a certain period of life, you shouldn’t so easily deprive yourself of memories, no matter how bad they are.

Adeline tried to think rationally, even though her face was constantly wrinkling with disgust for the vampire king.

- If you want to put an end to all your suffering, maybe you should make sure once again that he is happy with this Giselle? Don’t you think so? - Adeline asked. – Make sure and let him go to hell.

- But what if he doesn’t love her after all? - a tiny hope smoldered in her heart. – What should I do then? I’m afraid to find out that I made a mistake.

- Then... nothing then... I won’t give you to him anyway. -Adeline frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

It was getting colder and windier. The tree trunks swayed violently from the flow of the wind, creating a resonance and pleasant noise in the deep forest.

About fifteen minutes later, Nicole came out to meet them. She was full of energy and cheerful, unlike her friends.

- Well, I finally found you. - she rushed to hug them. – It was a mistake to make an appointment in the forest, there are so many identical trees here. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Nicole rolled her eyes and the girls laughed.

- Come quickly, it’s so cold here. - she beckoned them to follow her.

The few days that Nicole spent alone, putting her thoughts in order, she created an excellent shelter right under the roots of an old oak tree. Of course, she had to use all her earth magic skills, but now she was very happy with the result. It was warm, cozy and as safe as possible, because as soon as they entered their new temporary home, the roots immediately returned to their place, hiding the place of entry.

It turned out to be very spacious inside, despite the fact that it was only one room in which the floors and walls were made of real earth. This isn’t a royal suite, but it’s passable, too.

- Now! You! - Nicole pointed a finger at Thea. – I want to see the real you.

Thea’s mouth opened involuntarily. She expected that sooner or later she would have to reveal her secret, because she no longer had a miraculous potion with her that changed her appearance. But she didn’t expect Nicole to announce it herself, apparently Eugene told her more than she thought.

- We’ll have to wait a while for the potion to expire. – she replied. - I’m sorry I had to hide it from you.

- It doesn’t matter. More precisely, of course, it is important, but I have thought a lot while waiting for you here. I was hurt and unpleasant, but I realized that if I had known about it earlier, I would have told the supreme witch about it. Certainly.

- Then what influenced your decision not to do it now? - Thea was a little wary.

- Eugene showed me some of the prophecy that concerns you. I still don’t know how to treat it, but it’s definitely not something that should be taken lightly. - She looked at Thea very seriously. - But you can be sure that I won’t betray you. I’ve been thinking about it too much. We’ll go through it all together. Do you hear? Together.

- Aah.... Yes, of course. If only I still knew what exactly we have to go through. - her eyes wandered around the room, as she finally realized that she had heard about the prophecy many times, but had never heard about what this prophecy promised.

- I don’t know much myself, I’ve only seen part of what Eugene has allowed me to see. This was due to the race war. I saw terrible things, I didn’t sleep properly for several days after that. I have nightmares from time to time. It’s horrible. We have to prevent this. You will be the one to prevent it.

Adeline stood aside and listened in silence with her mouth open. Her heart was also restless, because no one in their right mind wanted a war that would take many innocent lives. And most importantly – for what? What is all this war for? For the sake of suppressing vampires? Was it a covered lie?

She doubted that the main reason was this, otherwise what would have prevented this war from starting a long time ago...

Even the vampire king didn’t mercilessly kill all the witches the time he showed up at Lourdes Square. No, he was certainly cruel and merciless, but he did not kill everyone present there, as if he was playing with them, teasing and provoking.

- I’ve already heard about it, but how can I do something? Save someone? I don’t even have enough strength to protect myself, let alone an entire nation, other races. - Thea shook her head, smiling ironically.

-Does that suggest to you that this is exactly what Eugene wanted from us?

- What exactly? – asked Adeline, who did not understand what the conversation was about.

- We have to look for allies. It’s obvious, Ada. She said we should go to the northern lands first. This will be our first point, we will deal with the rest as we go along.

Adeline was immediately inspired and an undisguised smile played on her face, coupled with the desire to jump and shout that she would soon be able to see Klaus. Nicole just shook her head at her friend’s childish behavior.

Although Nicole kept her face in front of her friends, she still felt hard internally that both of her friends had relationships with enemies of witches. It was so hard to accept that it was difficult to do with calming and meditation alone. She had to resort to heavy artillery – soothing potions.

She was already anticipating the moment when they would find themselves in a pack of werewolves and how she would hold on with the last of her strength so as not to kill one of them. The vampire was more complicated. She still remembered how he hypnotized her, how he deprived her of the possibility of movement with just a wave of his hand, how he broke her bones. She had the confidence that if she met him again, this time would be no different from the past. He’s just too strong for her.

And then it dawned on her that maybe being friends with werewolves wasn’t so bad when they were friends against vampires. After all, everyone knew that werewolves and vampires were sworn enemies. Although it would be more correct to say that the werewolves were in hostile relations with everyone and lived remotely as outcasts.

Well, if that was the case, then she would have to learn to control herself so that they could enlist the support of the werewolves. In part, it wouldn’t be difficult if Adeline’s boyfriend would help them. But she could only hope for that.

- So, girls, put aside all these depressive moods, we need to be strong now, when there is no one to stand up for us. - Nikki uttered a victory cry.

- I agree! - Adeline nodded. – It remains only to knock the bad thoughts out of Thea’s head.

- Thea? So that’s your real name. - Nicole admired. – I like it. Really suitable for a princess.

Thea blushed a little, embarrassed and biting her lower lip to hide her embarrassment.

- Well, there really shouldn’t be any room for secrets now that we’re all in the same boat. – she confirmed. – Although I am a princess, but I have nothing but a name, unfortunately.

- Maybe you can tell me why you found yourself in such conditions here with us? Why didn’t you have a good life in the palace? – Nicole was very inspired by the fact that she wanted to hear the whole story from beginning to end.

- There would be something to tell really ... - Thea hesitated.

- Do you think there’s nothing? I’m just going to fall out from the thought that our supreme witch is your mother. And you say there’s nothing to tell... - she was indignant, furiously gesticulating in the air with her hands.

- Stepmother. She’s my stepmother. And if we talk about why I am here in the end, and not in a cozy palace, then she is the reason for this. – Thea stated sadly. – All this apparent concern for me is only assumed and feigned. In fact, we never loved each other, and I felt a lot of pressure on myself and restrictions from her.

Thea paused for a second and took a deep breath, catching her breath.

- It was she who forced my father to make this stupid decision about the wedding, as if trying to get me away so that I could not influence my father in any way. The fact that everyone is talking about my shame is all nonsense, because my father used to love me, despite the lack of magic. But with her appearance, everything went to pieces and he also began to consider me a disgrace to the family.

- Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. – Nicole was sorry to see her friend upset and she tried to smooth out the sharp corners. - Is that why you ran away? You know, I fully support you. You are a real brave man, since you took responsibility for your life into your own hands.

- I didn’t really run away. I wanted to die by jumping out of the window. – she stunned Nicole and Adeline with her confession, who still did not know the whole story. – But in the end, Raphael was the one who saved me that day.

She grinned to herself, not knowing if it was right to call it "salvation", because at that moment he claimed that he had kidnapped her and she was his prisoner. But he had never treated her as a prisoner, so she considered it a kind of salvation.