I woke up disoriented.

Everything around seemed to be spinning, but I got out of bed anyway.

I followed the voices coming from Killian's office and when I stopped at the door, my gaze fell on six people.

Two of them had nothing to do here for a few more days.

"Where are they?" I spoke and with that, drew their attention to myself. "Where's Killian and Lucy?" I said with a shaky voice, wishing it was all just a dream.

"You shouldn't be standing." Luna walked up to me and tried to grab me, but I pulled my hand away before she could touch me.

"Where are they?" I repeated more sternly, waiting for someone to answer me this time.

"I heard from some people about a plan to get rid of you. When I got here, you were gone. I found you passed out in an alleyway, but no one was there." Nyx spoke. "I took you here right away."

"Tell me you know where they are." I closed my eyes to stop the tears.

"Not yet." I looked up at Charles. "But we will find them."

I shifted my gaze to Kai and Sebastian. They were both looking at me and I wasn't able to look them in the eyes.

What did I do?

I turned and ran out of the study. I heard Luna yelling at me, but I just kept running.

I understand that I'm not a good person, but I don't deserve this. Lucy doesn't deserve this. Killian doesn't deserve this. Nobod does.

I didn't care that I ran barefoot through the back entrance to the garden. I didn't care about the tears that clouded my vision.

The only thing I could focus on was the emptiness in my chest.

I lost them.

I finally had someone and I lost them. Both of them.

How could this happen?

And again I experienced the same thing. Running through the woods in tears after losing everyone I cared about.

At some point I stopped. In the middle of the forest. I dropped to my knees and bowed my head.

How could I lose them?

"What do you want from me?" I looked at the sky, which was visible through the treetops. "What the hell do you want from me! Why can't I be happy at least once in my life!" My voice broke. "I just wanted to live." I whispered. "Why won't you let me?" More tears ran down my cheeks. "Why?" I exhaled shakily and lowered my head to the ground sobbing.

"He stopped responding to people like us a long time ago." I heard Nyx behind me.

"Go away." I got out of myself.

"Get up, you wreck." She walked over to me and pushed me.

"Leave me the fuck alone!" I screamed at her.

"Or what? What are you going to do?" She put her hands on her knees and bent down until she was close to my face. "Will you drown me in your tears?" She tilted her head to the side with a small smile. "Look at you."

"Leave me alone." I got up from the ground and grabbed her shirt.

"That's it. Hit me." She set her cheek. "I know you want to."

I raised my clenched fist but couldn't bring myself to punch her.

"Come on!" She screamed. "You think you're going to help them if you can't even hit?"

"Help them? I can't help them. No one can." My voice broke. I let go of her shirt and lowered my fist. "We lost." I shrugged my shoulders. "We lost and it's my fault."

"So that's it?" She snorted. "You're giving up."

"They've already won. Why keep trying?"

"So I sacrificed everything for nothing? You may not hit, but I fucking will." She took two steps towards me and her fist hit my cheek.

"You always wanted to kill me, so do it. Kill me." I straightened up. "Do it."

"You've always been many things, but never a coward. To take the easy way out of this madness? That's pathetic even for you."

"And what do you want me to do?" I raised my voice. "Everything is gone! Frederik has Lucy and Killian. God knows if they're still alive." I bit my tongue at my words.

"Someone takes something that's yours and you just let them have it?" She frowned. "No way."

She stepped back and raised her leg which hit my stomach. I fell to the ground from the impact and grabbed my stomach.

"Come on!" She approached me and kicked me again in the stomach with the tip of her foot. "Get up bitch! Are you going to let me hurt you? Is it really that easy?" She hit my stomach again, and this time it hurt a little more. "I'm not surprised they're gone. You can't take care of yourself, let alone them." She snorted and leaned towards me. She ran her hand over my face and brushed a strand of hair from it. "But it's not like you were interested in them. Maybe that's what you wanted. To lay with someone and ruin a kid's life.

I'm not surprised you're one of the best white snakes out there. I have to say, I didn't think much of it when I first saw Lucy, but now? Ohhh, she's going to be one of the best. Just imagine all the new methods they will use to torment her in the future. New technologies. Do you think she will last?"

I froze at her words, sadness turning to anger. My blood was boiling in my veins.

"Or maybe she will break like a dry branch. Easy and..." I didn't let her finish. I grabbed her by the neck and stood up.

Her back hit a tree behind her, her head hitting the hard wood, causing her to hiss in pain.

"Take her name out of your mouth." I said between my teeth and squeezed her neck.

"That's the Eris I know." She smiled. "Take that anger and use it. Come oooon."

"Burn in hell."

"Me? Why not the management?"

"You don't get it, we can't get to them. Not anymore." I loosened my grip on her throat, but did not remove my hand.

"Do you really think that? I thought you were better. Forget Lyssa, think like Eris. Someone took what's yours. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to let it go or take back what's yours?"

"We have nothing. No plan or information."

"Of course we have information." She laughed. "We've lived with them too long to not know what they'll do. They won't kill them. They'll use them as bait to get you. And when you get where they want you, you'll cut their throats."

"You think it's going to be that easy?" I snorted.

"Think like Eris. Do something crazy and dangerous. Something they won't expect. Everyone has a weakness, you just have to find it. Something they care about. Find an open wound and dig your fingers into it until you feel bone."

And that's exactly what I'm going to do.



I held Lucy close to me. I won't let anything happen to her.

She cried into the hem of my t-shirt even though I tried to calm her down.

At first I told her it was just a game. But when women walked through the door with guns pointed at us, I didn't work.

She's scared, and I can't do anything about it.

The metal door in the all white room opened again, and this time there was a man standing in it.

I stood in front of Lucy and hid her behind me. "Take one more step and it will be your last."

"Said the dead man." He laughed and took out his cell phone from his pocket. "Almost dead." He said while clicking something on his cell phone. "You can survive. And so can she." He nodded his head at Lucy. "You just cooperate and nothing happens to anyone. Well almost everyone gets out. Eris will die for sure." He shrugged.

I kept my mouth shut even though I wanted to rip his head off. I can't risk something going wrong and Lucy being left here alone.

"I'll call her and you'll be so kind as to greet her, you good with that?" He asked, not expecting an answer. "Why don't you put your hands over your ears, little one. She definitely doesn't want to hear this."

I looked down at Lucy and nodded. I ran my hand through her hair trying to calm her down.

"Good girl." He winked at her and that was almost my last straw. "Now, Eris." He smiled and called her. He put it on speaker and held the phone in front of him.

It took a few seconds for her to pick it up.

"How are we feeling today Eris?" He spoke.

"Where are they, Frederik?" Lyssa said from the other side and I relaxed at her voice. I'm so fucking glad I can hear her voice.

"Right here. In front of me. I'm not going to walk around a hot mess. You know what I want and I know what you want. Easy trade. You for the two of them."

"I want proof that they are both alive." Wise woman.

"Sure, no problem. Come on, talk." He nodded his head at me.

"We're okay." I spoke.

"Killian." She said quietly. "Where's Lucy?"

"She's fine and..."

"That would be enough." He hung up the speaker and put the phone to his ear. "This is going to happen now. I bet you had a plan to ambush us in a few days where the investors are meeting. I'm sure it was good and really well thought out, but it's useless. I don't plan on waiting that long. You have a day to get to Germany. The main building, you know where it is. Come alone and unarmed. Don't try anything, because that teary-eyed pretty girl will lose her head. You've lost. Accept defeat."

He fell silent for a while. Lyssa had to start talking and I could only imagine what she was saying to him.

She is crazy enough to agree to his terms. She can't do that. They will kill her the moment she shows up here.

"And if you happen to be looking for the rest of my team, I'll disappoint you. I made sure they were all in a different state." Again silent for a while. "One day or they end up dead. Your decision." Without another word, he hung up and put the phone back in his pocket.

"You do realize she's not going to go down easy, right?"

"Of course I know." He smiled. "It's going to be quite a show."

Please Lyssa, don't do it.

Don't do anything stupid.

Please.



"So that's your plan?" Everyone looked at me in disbelief, but Luna was the first to speak.

"The best we could come up with in such a short time."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." I nodded. "Kai and Sebastian will stay here, I can't worry about you two out there. Theo and Luna will go with me, Nyx and Charles."

"And what if your plan fails? Have you thought about it?" Charles asked.

"Nyx will collect the weapons and all the equipment." I ignored Charles and continued. "Theo will make sure we're not seen on any cameras and Charles will find out everything we need to know and I'll take care of everything else. You can go." I nodded my head at the door. "Meet me at the entrance in half an hour."

I turned to the table and waited for everyone to leave.

"And me? You didn't say what I should do." Luna spoke after everyone was gone. "You can't leave me out of this.

"I'm not planning to." I took the folded paper from the table and turned to her. "Here." I handed it to her and she carefully opened it.

Her gaze darted over the words on the paper. "Lyssa..." She looked up at me. "This is..."

"I know." I interrupted her. "Do you think you can do it?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Remotely? Probably." She shrugged. "But this is crazy." She pointed to the paper.

"I'm starting to think that's my middle name."

"Are you sure about this?" She looked at me with concern.

"I won't lose them Luna. I won't let the management take them from me too."

"It will be hard."

"When was anything easy?" I laughed.

"So we're really doing this?" I nodded. "Well in that case, screw it, let's destroy the white snakes for good."

*****

This book would be ending shortly, but since you decided you wanted the longer version, go get some tissues and get ready for an emotional rollercoaster ;)