***

The explosions has finally stopped at the moment we reached the great hall and the menacing atmosphere start to creepily engulfing us as we rush through the empty hallway. The temperature keep on decreasing with every step we take and my heart palpitated even more because the cold was never a good thing in this land,

With Sehun’s guide, we easily make our way through the great door without being seen or engaged by another obstacle and as the great grand looking door welcomed our sight, I start to let out a sigh of relief but just right before Sehun could even get his hand on the door, a loud crackling sounds followed by icy winds halted him as the ice crystallized right in front of us, forming a big sharp stalagmite looking spikes that covering the entire door, sealing the only way out. We are just one step away from my freedom,

I turn around with a gasp, praying to the lord above to let my fear to be just another paranoid thoughts that I felt from all the pressure this whole bizarre night has put me through. But my bad thoughts have tendency to come true and this is one of many times it happened as I came face to face with my horror,

And before I knew it, a tight grip that TaeHyung has on my wrist yanked off forcefully as he sent flew backward onto the wall and instantly wrapped by layer and layer of ice all around, locking his movement as he gritted his teeth, struggling to get free whilst another growl heard from the opposite, indicating that my brother suffered the same way,

“going somewhere, youngest?”,

Voice as cold as the pit of bottomless icy lake, my grandmother strolled casually into the hall, fingers tangled in front of her as she maintain her regal poise even when she take control of her power as if she’s not in the middle of suppressing a strong Werewolf and a Vampire prince, her black armor glistened in the light. She looked terrifying underneath the poker face mask that she put on and I couldn't but feel inferior under her presence all over again,

I take a sharp intake of breath when she finally stopped on her track just a few feets away from where I stood rooted on my own feet,

“didn't I show you what happened to a bad child last time, youngest? Yet you managed to make another mischief, I thought what happened to KyungSoo teach you enough lesson?” she mused, her brows pinched in displeasure as she spoke and I bit my lip hard to suppress the shaky breath that start to get out of control,

“release them, grandma” I finally managed to speak. In a different occasion I might be weirded out by the calmness of my voice considering the way that the stress that has been weighing me, but now, all I ever want is to act strong, so I clinging to whatever power or anything that left in me to stay that way,

My grandmother clucked her tongue, looking calm as ever even without her thaumaturge to guard her, a formless shadows looming behind her was all she has and I instantly know that that gigantic shadows is her soul seeker. Even without a deviant form, it looked so malicious that I felt a constant uncomfortable shiver ran through my spine as it moves like a black shady veil around my grandmother. Guarding. Watching,

Threatening

“I said remove the ice, grandma” I demanded again and she fixated her silver orbs on me this time, squinting her eyes as she watch me balled my fist. My own shadows forming as I ignored Sehun loud warning behind me, he and TaeHyung both struggled even harder at the sight of my defensive mode,

“you can't fight her JooYeon!”,

“idiot! what are you doing?!”,

I gritted my teeth in annoyance, holding the urge to shout back at them to shut up and slap the sense into them that I don't have much choice here other than defending them and myself seeing there’s no way out from the situation. So instead of yelling back at them like I very much desired to, I focused my eyes on the woman in front of me,

“you can't control me, grandma, I’m not gonna bent like how you wanted me to”,

She let the silence engulfed us for a moment before she hummed thoughtfully “hmm, so much love” she whispered out of the blue and my brows furrowed in confusion at her random statement before her change in expression caught me off guard,

“do you know what happen to something that doesn't bent, youngest?” she smiled wickedly as she continued “they will break apart”,

As the words died down from her red luscious lips, a billowing cold wind soaring around us as her shadows roared, rushing forward to me, trying to grab and smash me but lucky for me, I reacted in time, parrying by slashing the thing with my scythe at the same time, breaking a part of the thing, it crumbling before slowly crippled like an abrasion beneath my feet, I expected it to part away like a smoke or something but to my surprise it’s as solid as a rock, almost like a diamond even. Figures. My shadows feels like particles of dust before it formed it into something, even Nox -if you looked close enough- left a trace of dust like crystal behind him everytime he move sometimes seeing how he’s the embodied form of my soul. My grandmother power are always more harsh and merciless. Like crystallized ice

“I told you to stop loving someone” she speak as she watch me fought her soul seeker, eyes following my every moves, not even squinting when the soul seeker’s next blow sent me flying sideways and crashed onto an unlucky ornaments,

I barely balanced myself back on my feet when ice cold grip get a hold of my neck and yank me up, hanging me mid air as I struggled to get free, choked a bit,

My grandmother start to advancing forward when a sharp vines of bloods break through her barrier suddenly, only stopped by her shadows an inch from her skin and our eyes simultaneously found the source. A pair of silver orbs looking at him indifferently while mine widened in horror,

TaeHyung glared dagger towards my grandmother from his confinement,

“I don't care who you are and what you are but I’ll kill you if you harm even a single hair on her head” he spat venomously, eyes glowing red in anger,

Under a normal circumstances, I might think that I was imagining things and gone nuts if I ever heard Kim TaeHyung said anything like that but hearing him saying that now make me wanted to scream and tell him to run for his life. This is literally the embodiment of death itself that he provoked,

My grandmother tilted her head when she look at him in amusement before rising her hand and her shadows grabbed a hold of TaeHyung’s neck, choking the boy as I trashed harder from my own confinement in the mid air, clawing at the thing around my neck while screaming murder,

“now, where did I witnessed such scene?” she mused, pausing while my scream got louder and even Sehun growled throatily when TaeHyung start wheezing for air, blood spilled from the place where the sharp tip of the shadow dug into his skin,

“‘a vampire will even go to the deepest part of hell to get their mate back’, ah, now I remember,”,

She looked back at me, face avoid of emotion as she put more pressure on TaeHyung’s neck before a sickening sweet smile grazed her face and I stared back in horror, pleading. Begging,

“this is how your father died when he tried to take your mother back actually, how ironic”,

At her words, my eyes widened as the realization  hit me like a truck. The signet ring. The vampire blood vines that circling my mother’s glass coffin on top of the tower. The fact that my father just vanished and no one could ever found even just a little piece of him,

Everything became clear as a unfamiliar tug of power surge out, fueled by anger and thirst of revenge then my sight start to bleed while the world turn into chaos around me.

 ***

Cold

I can’t seems to get a grip of my senses

Why am I trembling so bad?

“JooYeon!”,

I snapped out of my trance as a pair of hands shake my shoulders and everything cleared once again. I was kneeling on the ground, palm facing upward as they trembled hard and a large snout nudged on them, I thought it was Sehun at first but I looked up when I realized that the big wolf that tried to calm me was black in color and instantly locking eyes with the worry Sehun above me,

“wha-?” I croaked, my voice sounds so low and gravely as if they haven’t been used for months,

TaeHyung that refused to let go of my arms frowned at me “what’d you mean by ‘what’? We’re the one who should ask you about that!”,

I frowned back, looking around to take my surrounding and confused beyond anything when I see Nox sat right beside me as he watch me carefully, whimpering slightly as he did so. He looked even bigger than the last time I saw him. The crease on my forehead deepened,

What did I do?

What just happened?

I repeated the questions over and over again as I see the condition of the great hall. It’s looking like there’s havoc happened just a few second ago and I didn't even know about it,

As I just about to demand an answer from the two, my eyes fell on an unconscious body lying not so far away from us and the memories flying back into me like a horde,

When my grandmother told me truth about my father fate, I felt like an unfamiliar power surge out of me and I felt like my entire body engulfed in an ice from head to toe. From inside out, from my core,

I remember the temperature dropped drastically when I unleashed the newfound power unconsciously, caught my grandmother off guard as I break free from her soul seeker’s clutch but she reconciled fast by pulling the soul seeker back to retreat before Nox could clawed it to shreds,

What happened to me?

My body start to trembled again when the terrifying memory of me fighting my grandmother with sadistic glint on my face flashed in my mind. I had a glimpse of myself from the shiny objects on the wall that reflected the fight. I looked mad. I looked lifeless and merciless. I looked just like her.

 ***

TaeHyung frowns deepened when JooYeon body start to trembling uncontrollably and for the upteempth time tonight, he found himself acting without thinking again as he pull the girl into his embrace,

He look to his side and exchanging glances with Sehun shortly after taking a second look at the Empress unconscious body and agreeing wordlessly with the werewolf that it’s time for the to move before any of the Queen's thaumaturge come to her aid and making them trapped into another problematic situation, which the last thing they wanted to happen right now,

So without wasting another second, he pulled the girl up and straighten her on her feet “yah, Lee JooYeon, we need you to focus so that we could make it out of here alive before you explain what in the world that just happened!” he shake her not too gently, earning a sharp poke on his rib -courtesy of Sehun’s elbow- and he let out an annoyed his