A/N: Ta-da! Here is the huge chapter I have been promising. Not sure whether I will rewrite...it took me a while to produce and I'm afraid it may have turned out a tad...boring?? Anyway, feedback, as always, is appreciated. Please let me know if it bores anyone! :) Well, enjoy.

Breakfast and the Eternal Beyond

In the blink of an eye, I was standing amidst something that appeared to be a simple garden enclosed by four walls of stone as tall as my shoulders. It was only once I approached one of these walls that I saw that Ersades had actually brought us to a flat rooftop of a large turret, and we were at such an unexpected, disturbing height that with a gasp I suddenly reeled away from the edge and into him.

While turning to face him, I backed away, hoping he wouldn’t use the opportunity to get personally closer; he followed each of my retreating steps until one of his caused me to stumble back into a chair I hadn’t known was behind me.

He circled my chair from behind, and ran a hand across the top of the chair - it was as though I could feel the buzz of something on his skin, just inches from the nape of my neck. Following it with my eyes as long as I could, I turned my head to see where his hand had gone; I noticed the greyish marble-like table before me, half of which was set for one – on my end.

The Sorcerer made his way to the other side to stand behind the opposite chair with crossed arms beneath his cloak, all while keeping his intense gaze steadily on me; I could feel a hot wave of awkwardness creep up my neck. From where I sat, it was more encouraging to inspect the magnificent view of the surrounding space.

Below a velvet-blue sky and a golden sun, a multitude of colourful blossoms flourished amongst the luxuriant shrubbery, the flowers in shades I had only imagined. It was easy to shrug off the fact that there was no door in sight for my surroundings were liken to an enchanted scene right out of some fantasy novel; the setting was breathtakingly ethereal.

It truly was like a scene out of a fairy tale, with the exception of the dark shape of my captor lurking at the other end of the small rectangular, marble table, glaring down his nose me.

Not longer than two seconds I kept eye-contact with the being, eventually thrown off by a glare that bared the overpowering, familiar burning in his gaze and which was far too much to take for too long. Instead, after a thorough survey of my other-worldly surroundings, I mustered my concentration solely on the food set in front me.

It was a delicately arranged combination of an omelette and some pieces of my favourite, deliciously ripened fruit. At what point had he learned that I loved honeydew and cantaloupe so much? What else had he taken from my mind without my knowleldge and/or permission? This thought turned my stomach.

From the edge of my vision I saw him place his folded hands onto the back of the opposite chair. As hard as I managed to concentrate on the fruity contents of my plate, my stomach was too knotty to feel even slightly hungry. Strange, I thought, considering that my most recent meal consisted of Chinese leftovers and not much else.

I forced myself to find the silver lining: At least I could count on not getting indigestion due to how little I was eating.

I gave a piece of melon on my plate another shove with the fork before the deafening silence was broken by the sorcerer, whose menacing shape continued to stand motionlessly across from me, “Is there something wrong with the food?” The being inquired this in a remarkably innocent way as though he really wanted to know.

And strange, how he emphasized the word ‘food’ so that it was the most appalling thing ever.

“There's nothing wrong with it…I’m just…not hungry.”

The scepticism in his narrowing gaze was back as he eyed me.

“I’m not trying to starve myself …it’s just that…”

His head tipped, a perfect brow lifting in query at my incomplete explanation.

“It’s just that when you said we would have breakfast, I assumed-”

“If you recall, I never said ‘we’.”

Right….he hadn’t. Great!

“Well, still…it’s kind of…awkward, with you…staring at me like I’m on display or something.”

He said nothing but tipped his head the other way while smirking at me without reservation. It would have been extremely gratifying if I could have somehow made that smirk vanish off of that smug face! But it was something I had to accept…for now.

“And anyway, why aren’t you eating?” Abruptly with this emphasis, I impaled the piece of melon with my fork.

“Because I do not require it in order to survive.” He replied coolly, in a care-free tone.

It was hard to forget the black feline eating stir-fry at my dinner table, “But as a cat you did?” And this came out as more of question that challenged the validity of his all-righteous statement.

He nodded almost indistinctly, “It was one of the indignities of being cursed as that creature, yes.”

“Indignities?” Feeling offended, I compensated by letting out a small a laugh, though it came out sounding too much like a scoff, “Why is eating an indignity?”

“It is a weakness.” Ersades replied all-too nonchalantly without missing a beat.

“Well what do sorcerers require?”

“We simply require sleep.”

Suddenly and against my will, my brain retrieved an old, annoyingly accurate image from my cursed memory vault of the naked shape lying in bed beside me a few days ago, way back when to top having to deal with this mentally-scarring sight, I had also been plagued by a hang-over.

That’s right; he did look unconscious then. Considering this thought, now I was glad he couldn’t see into my mind as it recalled a bit too much detail of his unclothed, upper torso. And if I was lucky, he wouldn’t see what I felt either: My cheeks deepen slightly in shade. It helped immensely to remind myself that he would never be more than my captor; it was supposed to be a consolation.

Okay, so I couldn’t deny that his body was like his face…but still, I would never in a million, trillion, billion, zillion years admit that to him. That could be in the literal sense, but still, it would never ever come to that either, I vowed again.

When I met his gaze once more, I thought it quite ironic that he claimed he could not get hungry, for the way he was watching me, something in his eyes certainly appeared as though he was famished. Yet again, my gaze fled from his.

“So…all meals will be like this? With me like this and you…staring at me?”

“Why not enjoy the scenery, Cassandra?” He gestured about us but failed to remove his gaze from me. I felt like a piece of juicy steak, pun intended.

How annoying. Not that I expected an answer; my question was rather rhetorical in nature, but it was still irksome that he had used the completely-avoid-an-answer tactic, by asking another question of the same sort: Purely rhetorical and without reason. But that’s right, this was amusing to him. And the cause of that smouldering gaze? That’s right – due to some silly theory, he was supposed to be in love with me. Well, it was definitely some deranged version of love…

After putting the third piece of melon in my mouth, I resigned from eating any more, and put my fork down determinedly, “I think I’m done.”

Still avoiding eye contact with Ersades, I watched as the being languidly slid his arm down the opposite chair’s backrest, and approached, now extending that same, gloved hand in my direction once reaching a postion directly next to me, “Would you be so kind and thereby offer me the pleasure of your company for a stroll in my gardens?”

Wow, he is asking? Well, I’ll take advantage of that.

“No, thank you.” Still no eye-contact, but that felt great!

The being cocked an eyebrow arrogantly, “I believe that you misunderstood, allow me to rephrase that: Will you join me of your own accord so that I needn’t use other means to obtain the pleasure of your company?”

My jaw dropped, but I glared ahead, in the spot he once had been standing. What a jerk.

Stiffening in my seat, I peered up at him, fighting not to show more than simple disbelief, “I don’t get a choice in this?” I managed calmly only because I was biting my irritability by gnawing at the insides of my cheeks.

“How else am I to show you around your new home?”

You mean prison.

I forced myself to smile pleasantly, while fighting my knee-jerk reaction which would have been to throw that in his face, but again, I held myself back. What else could I do but concede?

Yet again, I could have argued, but it would have done me little good. Instead, (and I was truly proud of myself for pulling it off so well) I calmly got up, dabbed my lips with the soft cloth from my lap like a lady, and laid my fingers in his gloved hand while daintily lifting my gown ever-so-slightly to side-step the table leg.

He led me toward a pathway I hadn’t seen, and down a long flight of winding stairs which was wrapped around the turret. Briefly I wondered whether beings of sorcery could fly (oh that’s right, they can, seeing as I recall Lorelei doing so…) Still, imagining him go splat over the edge did improved my mood slightly.

When we reached the most bottom plateau, there were trees of all sorts, perfectly sheared, aligned as a barrier around various bushes that were adorned with roses, lilies, and other wildflowers.

Again with my hand in his, he made use of the occasion by bringing my knuckle to his lips before gesturing the newer setting.

It was like the top of that turret, except to the tenth power with its colourful splendour. Maybe it was simply the effects of the lush, dark green grass and smooth stone steps that were laid symmetrically to form a path around and through the well-manicured property, but I was caught by a state of awe at first.

I didn’t know much about the science of flowers or plants, so I wouldn’t have known whether what I was seeing was actually a product of only this world… The types of flowers I couldn’t question, but their dazzling array of colours was entirely another thing – the latter aspect was definitely otherworldly.

“These are my gardens.” He announced, observantly watching my reaction and thus no doubt timing it well.

A guy back home with this sort of garden could not have been straight.

My mind was still trying to grasp what my mind was seeing, and my words slipped out pensively, “It’s very nice. I wouldn’t have thought…”

“…that an evil sorcerer would have such a garden, much less a garden at all?” When I trailed off, at loss for words, he jumped in to finish my sentence with a presumptuous inquiry.

Reading my mind must have been a tiring, redundant skill for him.

When I appeared to acknowledge this, he appended without meeting my eyes and peered about the grounds, “It is a recent addition to the grounds.”

I wanted to ask how recent, but then his eyes found mine again and I had to swallow my intended words; those green orbs burned into me even in their pensive state.

“You are free to come here whenever you wish,” he spoke slowly, returning his gaze to our surroundings, again as though musing over something long gone.

It was then I realized that I wasn’t the only one with a weakness. Where my weakness was being forced to depend on food for nourishment, his weakness was me. I reminded him of the fact that he wasn’t completely invincible after all and I could easily surmise that he didn’t like that at all.

Instead of contemplating this further, I gave into the urge to be beckoned by a bush of faded blue blossoms that resembled lotuses, “Does this exist in my world?”

“I gather you mean to ask, 'does it exist on Earth?'”

“That is what I asked.”

“No, my dear, you asked about your world, and this is your world.”

Again I bit my tongue – this was good practice anyway. Instead I settled for rolling my eyes.

Clearing my throat, I tried again, “Is this flower only in this world?”

“Yes.”

“See, that wasn’t too hard, was it?”

Ignoring the heavy weight in his eyes then as I walked by him, I approached the blue-blossomed bush and tentatively reached to brush one of its flower's petals only to hesitate, caught by a thought: He wouldn’t have anything poisonous here, would he? Then again, he wasn’t stopping me, so it seemed safe enough.

The moment I touched the bloom, something bizarre happened: there was suddenly more of that same blue nearby. Glancing down at my gown, I realized that it was my dress; inexplicably, the dress I was wearing was now as blue as the flower between my fingertips - my dress had changed colour!

In that instant my head snapped in his direction questioningly, and I was met with an expression that was a mixture of arrogance and delight. My brows knitted in confusion.

“Do you like it?” He asked in his usual, smug manner, eyeing me self-righteously.

At that, I looked more like a fish out of water than someone overcome with speechless wonder. Somehow I managed to nod.

“It is an exquisite shade,” He seemed to answer on my behalf, though strangely, he wasn’t looking at my dress as he approached, nor the flowers. He seemed to peer deeply into my eyes, which caused my cheeks to flush and I nearly stumbled over my own feet when I tried to take a step away to break the awkward moment. Naturally, due to my klutziness and his sorcerer light-speed, I failed to put distance between us and he effortlessly trapped me in his arms yet again.

I sighed in defeat.

Scrunching my eyes shut, I prepared for the contact of his lips but nothing occurred. Peeking a bit, I noticed that as close as his lips were, his eyes were focused somewhere else, over my head and their clear, emerald shade was replaced momentarily by flashes of red.

“What are you doing here?” Ersades hissed, Mr. Enthralling gone, completely replaced by Mr. Menacing.

When I tried to turn, Ersades held me from doing so, “Why Ersades, you’re being rude. And this is a terrible way to treat your sister.” Spoke Lorelei from somewhere behind me; I couldn’t determine how close she was – not that it mattered anyhow.

“Ah, yet entrapping your brother by a curse is a gesture of sibling affection? In any case, I was not aware that I had extended any sort of invitation to you.”

“Siblings don’t need invitations,” the sorceress answered idly in a silky tone.

What she means is that beings of sorcery are oblivious to the notion of invitations.

“I’ve simply come to visit my sister-to-be.” She amended.

“Oh, well it is a shame that she is feeling rather tired and cannot socialize with you now,” When I tried to object he placed a firm finger onto my lips, and then I heard a voice in my mind, “Why don’t you take a small nap and we will commence the tour in the library – I will come to get you.” His unyielding embrace unexpectedly vanished, and my surroundings immediately shifted to that of my room…

…or at least I thought it was my room. It looked exactly like my room, except that it was blue, not pink…and where there had once been a giant set of arched doors was nothing but faded-blue wall. My mouth gaped at the realization that he had simply made the doors disappear.

So much for speaking to Lorelei…not that I had wanted to, but maybe she intended to tell me something regarding escaping? Well, I wouldn’t know now… Either way, it felt undignified to be sent to my room like some child.

How degrading. Oh well. Get over it, Ego, you don’t have a choice.

Besides the entrance to the room, its setup hadn’t changed; the location of the wardrobe, the balcony doors and the canopy were as I had left them – the one thing that was different was the colour theme which had gone from shades of pink to hues of blue, and this included the trimmings which were now much more pleasant to look at.

How interesting that the shade was exactly like my dress…Had it all changed with my clothes? How did that happen and why?

Then I wondered whether the other clothes in the wardrobe had been affected and I would have swiftly opened those doors but hesitated when I recalled that a certain someone ‘lived’ within. And that certain someone was a tad upset with me for having forfeited the collar.

Overcoming my wariness, I slowly opened the doors completely, somewhat surprised that a heavy silence hung in the air and they didn’t make even the slightest sound.

Of course, magical hinges don’t need oiling.

At first I expected Sanara to just pop out in front of me, but nothing happened. While I was wondering about the princess, my eyes darted to the gowns hanging inside – just as I had thought, they were some shade of the ‘exquisite’ blue as well.

So strange that–

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud sigh that came from behind me. When I looked into the mirror on the wardrobe door, I saw Sanara sitting on the edge of my bed with a withered expression on her face.

I sighed too, but silently in contrast.

“How is the weather today?” She asked, appearing distracted, staring off into nothingness in front of her.

“Listen, I–”

She interrupted me by raising a dark-olive coloured hand, showing me her light palm, her fancy sleeve making this 21st century motion so elegant and befitting her, “I won’t allow myself to be discouraged. You are the greatest hope I have had in a long time…and…if we both put our minds to it, I do not think we need the collar to reverse the circumstances.”

Elation and relief: I wasn’t alone after all!

“Well, we have less than a month.” I declared, and the princess stood as she looked at me then; I could tell that she had been crying. It seemed I wasn’t the only one to be victim to my hapless emotions.

As dignified as ever, even with a tear-streaked face, she nodded with understanding; I was glad that I didn’t need to explain…I really didn’t feel like relaying the words I dreaded to even consider.

When about half an hour later Ersades came to retrieve me from my room, I pretended that the scene with his sister had been of no concern to me; it would be better to play as innocent as possible.

A few days went by, where I thought either of two things: that perhaps I was truly cooling down and had come to accept my situation, or that I had grown capable of controlling my outbursts and was achieving the first step of a succeeding plan. I was determined to play the helpless damsel.

A blur of breakfasts, lunches and dinners – it was easier to live through them that way and be unaffected by the controlling ways of the evil sorcerer. This was how I managed to keep my sanity – this and the headband – the latter I was mostly grateful for…there were things he would never know about. But time was running out, I knew that, and just maybe, it seemed that Ersades seemed more laid-back now, and even allowed me some solitude now and again. Whenever I got the chance, I updated Sanara about these new developments. Maybe there was even a way I could contact Lorelei?

It was following a particularly boring lunch that Ersades and I were in his gardens again, and wrapping his arms around me from behind, he broke the lulling silence, “As a gesture that I’m sure you will appreciate, I will let you see your friends today.” Suddenly my attention was no longer on the flower he was showing me, but rather, on the imminent visitation he mentioned.

Somehow his closeness caused me little anxiety, even when he nuzzled the valley at my neck – there was nothing that could distract me from looking forward to this visit. I had been incessantly worrying about my friends over the course of…how long had it been? Almost two weeks? And each time I had asked to see them, his answer was no. It had been days since I had last made any such request. I wondered anxiously about Dr. Isaac’s health…

Without any warning the setting shifted and the scene surrounding us was made up of a gray, stone-block enclosure and damp, musty air. A tiny, barred window allowed just a bit of sunlight to stream onto two shapes. Ersades was nowhere in sight, but in the darkest shadow, the nearest shape was slumped in a heap, and breathing harshly.

Dr. Isaac…

And just as I was about to take a step toward this shape, I caught another, larger shape, which I slowly recognized as two, sitting quite close to one another. Instantly, my eyes adjusted to the dimness, and I saw the most shocking sight: Smudged with dirt and both covered in ragged clothes, Abigail and Derik attached to each other by the lips.

I felt my eyes enlarge with dazed disbelief. Suddenly I felt immensely betrayed and was fighting utter nausea.

“Abbie?” I gasped as though the air had been knocked out of me.

My friends shot apart and looked guiltily at me, their eyes wide from fright; they had enough gall to still hold onto each other’s hands.

No, it can't be…!

Something in my chest twisted slightly and a small voice, which I hadn’t heard in a while, screeched, that should be me! And I wanted so much to be angry with Abbie, but knew that I only had one being to blame to these turn of events…

Now all I wanted was to be taken from there; I wished that I hadn’t seen it. How did I need to call Ersades? Why wasn’t he here? Then it struck me: had he done this on purpose? It all made more sense this way. Somehow must have known…he knew and…

On cue, Ersades slinked from a corner I had thought was occupied by nothing more than mere, innocent shade, his face unreadable not due to lack of light but because it was like stone. His eyes, on the other hand, were ablaze with a peculiar emotion – triumph, and I knew instantly that I was right about my theory. This had been his plan.

So what if he could be blamed now? What good would it do? It wasn’t as though that would erase the past, or miraculously change the course of events to come; the need to place blame was spinning in my head. It went from Abbie, to Derik, all too easily, Ersades and ultimately, me. Really, I had no one else but myself to blame for the incidents that had unfolded.

Now I was feeling strangely light, even though my chest was heavy, my breathing feeling labourous; I knew that now I was no longer standing and what felt like two, sure arms were holding me. Had I fainted? Was I really this weak that my body couldn’t handle this shock?

Everything flashed before me on a black screen as though I was at a movie theatre – the cat, Dr. Isaac, Abbie, Derik in separate episodes of past scenes of my pathetic human life – and then I blinked, or at least I thought I blinked, because before me were a new series of scenes – Abbie and Derik getting married, having kids, growing old with grandkids around them–

I awoke with a start, my heart frantically beating against my chest. It was night again somehow, and it took massive effort to separate my dreams from the reality of what had occurred earlier that day. Abbie and Derik…right, I stifled the writhing of something in my chest now, achieving distraction by the fact that I had been asleep and couldn’t figure out for how long? The night scene beyond my balcony doors was the same as it always had been for a fortnight – though something was off. When I tried to sit up, my waist was restrained by something hard – an arm. A cool tickle made a trail on my cheek and I turned my head – the being, whose arm was holding me, his eyes were closed – when I reached up to feel what had run across my face, my hand was wet from a tear.

I blinked again, but now when I looked up at the canopy’s underside, instead I saw Ersades’ face, and I gasped; I could see it coming quite near to my own, and the weight of his entire body on top of me increased until his face completely lowering to kiss me. When I briefly felt a tingle on my lips, I blinked again, and then he was gone – a side glance told me he had never actually moved, yet the sudden drowsiness I felt proved otherwise… I gave into it, and allowed my thoughts to fade away…

When I awoke again, I had the distinct feeling that it was all over: The ordeal of being Ersades' prisoner, the guilt for regretting to save him, all of it, over with and no more. I was free again...yes, that's right, and I was taking a lazy nap on my beach towel on the warm sand, read to now walk hand-in-hand with Derik on the shore, carefree and happy.

I couldn't recall how, but somehow I had managed to escape the evil being and nothing petty mattered any longer. Not that Abbie and Derik had been kissing or that I had lost almost a year of my social life - now all that mattered was that I was free and could live my life again. How long had it been now? It couldn’t have been more than just a few days, as far as I could remember.

"Do you care for me, Cass?" Derik stopped abruptly beside me, tugging on my hand so I ended up in his arms.

"I wonder if that's why I avoided you for so long." I could feel myself blush and knew he was watching me keenly.

Faintly, I realized that Derik had asked me another question but I was distracted by a shape that emerged beyond the horizon, from between trees where the forest met the golden, sandy plane. I watched the shape take recognizable form; the slight silhouette was Lorelei, strangely enough, approaching us by foot. Perhaps she was amusing herself by attempting to be human? At first the mango gelato, and now the sand between her toes – that sort of thing. But how had we trapped him? That memory too, seemed elusive, but it must have involved Lorelei somehow.

Derik's hands tightening on my upper arms drew my attention to his face again, which seemed unusually blurry though the sun's brightness was most likely to blame, "Tell me," he urged, pulling me even closer. This gesture would have felt almost threatening if it hadn't made me feel fuzzy all over for the some strange reason.

"Hang on, I need to give Lorelei her headband back."

"Headband?" His grip suddenly loosened, and he allowed me to move away.

"Now that I'm free, I don't need it anymore."

"Your headband..." He mumbled, as though in deep though, he eyes narrowing in what seemed like concentration, deeper thoughts seeming to take form in their depths.

"It gave me sanity so he couldn't-"

"Read your mind." He interceded, appearing to now comprehend, and strangely his expression wasn’t one of sympathy, but rather, fascination.

I nodded, all too briefly wondering what was going through his mind at that. Was he offended that another male had access to my private thoughts? Surely he wouldn’t hold that against me, as it all wasn’t exactly voluntarily.

"Of course," Derik commented with a now-pensive air before his smile expanded, although not far enough to reach his eyes, "It must have been horrible, having your mind open to him all the time." Strange how his tone was laced with a hint of false sympathy but I shrugged it off, much too happy to decipher its meaning.

Even when his hazel eyes narrowed in a way I had never seen before, I felt not much more than grateful relief, and replied that yes, it had been stressful not to have any privacy.

"Hello!" Derik and I turned to perky Lorelei, whose arms were full of a black-furred creature with a silver-band-like collar; it was Ersades the cat, who then licked his small snout as he peered at me menacingly with eerily familiar, green orbs.

The three (or four?) of us stood in silence and I sighed and turned my attention to Lorelei who opened her mouth, ready to say something.

"Such a lovely landscape, Cassandra!" It wasn't the sorceress who had spoken this though, and her eyes darting between and beyond Derik and I; the tone was familiar and male, yet it wasn't Derik either, who appeared to be as stunned and bewildered as I felt when we noticed a shape standing with his back to us. He was evidently inspecting the landscape, "Not as beautiful as the land surrounding my castle but breathtaking nonetheless… it is no wonder you thought I was a creation of your mind at one time."

As astoundingly conceited as that sounded, I was much too busy trying to make sense of this new presence and the implications of what this could have meant.

A part of me began to panic. What was going on?

When the shape turned around to face us, my heart skipped a beat in terror and my brain did a double take. How was this possible?

On cue, the cat squirmed out of Lorelei's arms, leapt to the ground and smoothly approached Ersades who stood beside a now dumbstruck Lorelei. The sorceress seemed too shocked to move or even physically react in the slightest at first.

"What are you doing here?" Was my question, but Lorelei beat me to it.

Ersades extended his arms ever so slightly, and the cat jumped up into them, settling in the crook of one, before he began to caress the feline with the other languorous hand. The picture resembled a laid-back villain, with his pet...and something else entirely: those dreams of mine, from a long time ago.

Derik and Lorelei stood frozen, as I gaped at Ersades, who in turn smiled softly yet smugly, gazing into my eyes with hard green ones; I wasn't sure whether it was puzzlement that kept me from moving or sheer bewildering fright from an all too realistic flash of icy fury in the those green orbs.

"I must admit, I am slightly miffed that you thought it would be possible to defeat me a second time." The statement was plainly directed at me, and when I failed to comment as he appeared to expect, his eyes wandered about our surroundings reminiscently as his hand continued to pet the head of the creature which had now begun to purr in contrasting contentment. I should have known that the visible contentment was a pure reflection of how Ersades was feeling, as there would have been a hint of it in the depths of his idle gaze, had I looked hard enough.

I was dreaming. This was a dream. It had to be. But if that was true, that what was reality? And how much of what I now believed was real? I dreaded to think that this was in fact a dream, and that my happy ending was fictitious.

Lorelei and Derik stood dumbly as Ersades with cat in hand approached me; the other two did nothing but stare at us blankly.

“Indeed, I’m very impressed with this little world, my dear,” he caught me shift my head to look at Derik for some sort of support; “Your little boyfriend won’t be of any help to you now, and neither will my sister – see, both are mere creations of your mind,” he meditatively looked me over then, “while I am not.”

Abruptly he turned to Derik and placed the cat into his arms without difficulty, “Which is why he appears completely unaffected by this creature considering his newly developed phobia of a particular black cat.”

Derik looked curiously at the creature now in his arms which now began to clean its paw without a care. The blank stare in Derik’s gaze was chillingly unsettling – suddenly I was feeling severely helpless and alone.

As if instanly, Ersades’ face was a mere inch away from my own and I was in caught in his relentless embrace. The being was peering down at me with a cold, menacing air to his countenance; perhaps it was the way his lips were set into a slight, evil smile. His expression was boastful about something, but I was much too perplexed about the events around me to comprehend the cause.

Until with one hand, he reached up and removed my headband, without unlocking his cold gaze from my panicked one which no doubt also reflected my terror. In the moment before his lips fiercely met my own, I saw his eyes glowing red.

With a start, I awoke in the semi-darkness once again that night; the only light in the room came from the moon beams pouring onto the bed and from the eyes of the being holding me against the bed, whose lips were now and again grazing mine. Even as he blinked, I could see the unnatural, red glow of the gaze which was supposed be a cool green, beneath his lids.

He watched with what appeared to be amusement, as I frenetically reached up to feel my head for the usual headband, desperate to confirm that it had been nothing more than a dream but when my fingertips met nothing but hair, I frightfully realized that there had been a lot more to the dream-scene I had experienced.

“That’s right, my darling, it’s gone. Now, I advise that you get rest while you can as you have a Bonding Ceremony to prepare for this evening,” when he spoke against my lips, the menacing coldness of his tone brought an onslaught of chills to sweep over my body.