Baekhyun stared into the lifeless eyes of his mate, Chanyeol's cold gaze staring right back at him from the floor. His cheeks were covered in the tears that Baekhyun's eyes leaked out against his wishes, the vampire continuing to hold on tightly to his mate even when people started to crowd around them.

"Baekhyun?" Luhan called to him, his voice shaken as he fell onto his knees in front of the couple. The vampire ignored him in favour of reaching towards Chanyeol's wrist, taking it beneath his fingers and closing his eyes. Nothing. No blood pumped through the veins of his mate's body.

Chanyeol was dead.

Baekhyun released a painful cry, his eyes darkening to the colour of liquid mercury. His fangs resting against his lower lip, his mouth clamped down forcing the blood to draw from his lips. The blood mixing with his tears was a truly disrupting sight, especially for the children he had been looking after during the fighting. The boy who had always seen himself as a monster finally began to look like one.

"He's dead." he cried out, looking up into the eyes of Ms. Lee and then turning to look at the girl who had created this mess in the first place. "What did you do?!"

"What I had to do," she hissed back at him, looking down at him through narrowed eyes. "Chanyeol knew what he was getting into when he came to me."

"You allowed him to kill himself?" Ms. Lee gasped, turning to the girl by her side before falling to the floor beside her son's mate. She cradled the boy's head, holding him close as she cried out. Baekhyun felt for her, he hated that she had to yet again go through the torment of losing her son again.

"Oh will you just let me explain, we have three hours left!"

"What is with you and your time?" Baekhyun shouted, clambering up onto his feet. Leaving his mate in the hands of his mother before turning towards the witch who looked at him with sad eyes. "You've planned this entire thing with the man I love, I don't understand Daehyun broke the curse that prevented us from claiming our love for each other."

"I will explain everything if you just give me some time, you need to listen to my words carefully-"

"You expect me to listen to you when you refused to acknowledge me when you and Chanyeol formed your plan? You're the one that caused his death you-!"

"He's not dead!" Skylar screamed, her frustration bubbling over as did her fright. The sight of Baekhyun looking nothing but a monster before her terrified her to her core, but she found strength in the presence of her mate. Colin handled her with care, coaxing her forward when all she wanted to do was retreat back to her dormitory and lose herself in her ancestor's journals. "He merely appears that way because of the spell, honestly Baekhyun I thought you would have realised that by now since you witnessed your dream first hand."

"My dream?" Baekhyun questioned, his face returning back to its more human features. His eyes shone bright no longer looking like liquid silver, his lips healed so no blood poured and his fangs were pulled back into his natural pearly whites. "Which dream?"

"The one in which you learnt the truth." Skylar sighed, thankful that Baekhyun's anger was being controlled. "When you found out that you were pregnant, just before journeying here."

Ms. Lee's eyes widened as did the rest of the students surrounding them, they all turned to look at Baekhyun who was still crying (although not as hysterically as before). He looked at Skylar with a small amount of hatred, most likely caused now that she had brought up a memory he wished to keep buried in his mind. He took a breath, allowing himself to fall back onto the floor. He took Chanyeol's hand finding it odd that the heat had already gone from it, it was strange but then again if Skylar was right he wasn't truly dead, at least not yet.

"You were cursed to roam this world alone until fate saw fit to bring the both of you together again, you remained together until death pulled you both apart again when one of you confessed to the other. The only way that you could break this spell is if you pass a test that will determine that the love you both share was real, the test-"

"Would take place only after we died." Baekhyun finished her words, his eyes wide as he turned back to look at her. Hope finally shining through them. "You're meaning to tell me that all the times we supposedly died we were brought to a place in our subconscious for a test that would test our loyalty to each other?"

"A test you both failed for six hundred and forty times. When I told Chanyeol about it he was certain that you both would be able to prove that your love would come out on top, prove greater than the years that came before you. Katherine knew that it was going to be difficult but she knew that we would have to wait until the last moment to help, you know that I am her descendant. I swore to my mother who swore to her mother and so on before she died that I would be the one to help the both of you win, you all deserve to go home."

"But the comets are supposed to come this year, what would happen if neither of us overcome this challenge?"

"One of you always overcomes it," Skylar admitted without missing a beat. "It's always different, sometimes Chanyeol realises that the test is in fact a test, while other times it was you. This time you both will be aware of the test, I just hope that's enough to help you because you can't continue to live without the other which is why after some time you both do die."

"Can you tell me about what happened that night," Baekhyun begged, crawling on his knees over to the girl who looked down at him in surprise. "the night you came to me disguised as the man I love. I need to know what you said to him for him to do something like this without telling me."

"You were willing to die without telling him, he was willing to do the same for you." Skylar explained as she settled herself back down on the ground, her hands reaching out to Baekhyun's. The vampire was hesitant, but he knew that he needed answers and now after so long he was getting them. He couldn't pass up that opportunity. So he quickly held hands with the witch, willingly giving himself over to her. "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be..." Baekhyun took one last glance around at the boys and girls surrounding him, they all offered him a few small smiles of encouragement. He nodded his head, trying to reassure himself. But the hand on his shoulder prevented him from doing anything for the moment. Baekhyun turned his head and came face to face with Ms. Lee, her lips pressed tightly against each other as the tears still fell from her eyes. She dipped her head and took it upon herself to place Baekhyun's hands into the girl's hands, coaxing him through until the end. 
 

~~~
 

Chanyeol didn't know where he was going but he assumed that it wasn't going to be too far since Colin looked to be somewhat relieved when they came upon a certain hallway in the dormitory building. It was quite far away from Baekhyun's dorm, in the complete opposite direction if Chanyeol could recall but most of the hallways look the same anyway.

"What did you say her name was again?" Chanyeol wondered, looking at Colin who turned his head at his voice. "She's your mate right?"

"Is it that obvious?" The boy chuckled, tilting his head towards the ground to hide his embarrassment. It was funny to see someone he had grown up with look so childish, but Chanyeol knew that he would react the same way if Colin had decided to bring up Baekhyun.

"It's sweet, you must really care about her to have bitten her knowing the consequences."

"Oh it wasn't my intention to bite her," Colin explained, chuckling to himself as he continued to lead him towards the door he had marked out with a general flick of his hand. "she sort of claimed me first if that makes sense. I was the one courting her for some time but eventually she did take things a step further by marking me in her own way."

"Telling me she gave you a hickey straight out shouldn't be so hard Colin." Chanyeol chuckled, offering the poor blushing werewolf a teasing smile. He bumped his fist lightly against his friend's shoulder before abruptly stopping when he did.

"We're here." he explained, raising his fist and colliding it against the door. Chanyeol watched as the boy stopped before starting again, deciding to keep his mouth shut since it was obviously a secret code of sorts between the two lovers.

"Well it's about time the both of you came." The girl with long hair sighed after opening her door, she offered Chanyeol a small smile before glaring at her lover as she opened the door wider. Colin stepped in first to not only introduce Chanyeol to the room but also to calm his lover with a kiss to her forehead. "I've been waiting up ever since you texted."

"Chanyeol, this is the friend I was telling you about. Meet Skylar a young witch who is about to blow your mind quite literally and metaphorically."

"Babe don't freak him out," Skylar hissed, slapping her hand against Colin's chest. The wolf merely grunted at the impact before showing Chanyeol over to the couch, offering him a seat before wandering off into the kitchen to help his mate. "would you care for some tea? Or perhaps some coffee?"

"Coffee would be great actually." Chanyeol offered the girl a smile, one she shyly returned. Colin took it upon himself to gather the materials, ushering his girlfriend towards the Alpha who had taken time to look through her apartment. There wasn't anything that made her space look too different to Baekhyun, except the giant bookcase where his television was supposed to be. It was filled with leather-bound journals and a couple books that even Chanyeol couldn't recognize the language in which they were written in. It wasn't until Skylar sat herself down in the armchair to his right that he started talking again. "I should probably introduce myself properly to you.."

"Oh no need your majesty," Skylar shook her hand, pulling one of her cushions onto her lap. "I happen to know a lot about you already."

Chanyeol was speechless, he had just told his story to the wolves a few moments ago. There was no way that Skylar could have been able to hear it though, even if Colin had been on the phone with her.

Seemingly aware of his confusion Skylar continued, chuckling nervously as she shifted in the chair. "I should probably explain myself first, right?"

"It would certainly help."

"My name is Skylar Johnson, I'm the last living descendant of one of the three witches that placed you, your mate and friends under this curse which prevents you and your mate from speaking your true feelings to one another. In front of you are her journals. She kept a very detailed log about your arrival on this planet and even included a mistake that she hoped would be made right with time. I want to apologise to you right here and right now for what she and her sisters did, you have not seen it for yourself yet as Baekhyun's dreams have yet to tell you but I have no doubt that after tonight everything will be made clear."

"Can you tell me this witch's name?" Chanyeol inquired, tilting his head to the side as Skylar took a deep but shaggy breath of air into her lungs. "The one you are descended from."

"Her name was Katherine, she never married or wrote her full name in her journals so I cannot give you her last name. I won't waste time by telling you everything that happened upon your arrival here, I can only explain what you need to know right now. Baekhyun was in a certain state when he arrived here on Earth, Katherine was the first and only one of her sisters to realise that the boy was in such a way but before she could help him or for better terms stop her sisters from cursing you both, the deed was already done. Believe me when I tell you this, your majesty, she felt guilty ever since it happened."

"Please just call me Chanyeol, your majesty hasn't been something I would consider myself, even after viewing Baekhyun's dreams." The Alpha pressed, nodding his thanks to Colin who arrived with his coffee. The bitterness of the liquid was just enough to wake him up, at least for long enough to get back to Baekhyun. "Please go on."

"As a way of avenging you both she started concocting loopholes for the spell. I should make you aware that once a spell is cast, it is like being written into stone. It cannot be undone or overridden, it has to play out in the way in which it was written otherwise bad things would happen."

"Wait, are you telling me that what Baekhyun believes Daehyun to have done in terms of dismantling our curse is false?" Chanyeol's eyes widened, his coffee nearly spilling out of the mug in his excitement. The girl nodded her head.

"Baekhyun has the right intentions don't get me wrong and your brother has in fact tried and thinks he has managed to successfully break the part of your curse where one of you would die if the other confessed to them, as he sees it poetic if Baekhyun was to die by your werewolf bite. But both of these ideas are false. The witches that casted both of these spells made sure that they couldn't be overwritten or layman's terms, broken. I should specify that this is only in matters concerning you and Baekhyun, if it were anyone else I couldn't say for certain but as it is you both I can say with absolute certainty."

"How?"

"Because you are the reincarnation of two of the twelve wolf creators," Skylar stated, her brows furrowing in the centre of her forehead as if surprised that Chanyeol could even ask such a thing. The Alpha just glanced down into the coffee mug, okay yeah maybe he should have seen that one coming. "magic and power were the very core of your beings. You and Baekhyun have been destined to be together since you were born as it is the spirit of the sixth and eighth wolf that makes you who you are, also should I add for effect that you were both the first mates like- hundreds of lives ago now?"

Colin released a laugh, sitting himself down on one of the armrests of Skylar's chair. "I mean she has a point."

"Shut up Romeo," Chanyeol huffed, taking a sip of the bitter beverage before turning back to Skylar. "If what you are saying is true and if I confess my love to Baekhyun and we both die, then how come no one has told me what you've just said? Everyone believes that Daehyun has been able to achieve it, Kyungsoo especially."

"That's because no one has them," Skylar gestured with her hand to her bookcase, Chanyeol's eyes yet again falling on the spines of the journals -Katherine's journals. "I'm talking about one of the witches that created your first curse, her and her sisters wouldn't have allowed something so simple as a breaking spell to get you out of it. No, they were thinking bigger, outside the box. They wanted you and Baekhyun to suffer because they believed that you were the cause of Daehyun coming here, but what put Katherine away from her sisters was the fact that she spent the rest of her life figuring out all the potential loopholes to the curse and not one of them focused on a way of dismantling it because she knew that no one could do that."

"So you mean to tell me that this centuries old witch realised something that no one now-a-days knows about, not even Maddix?"

"Maddix has had an interest in my family's history for years, no one but my family -Jisoos rest their souls- knew about these journals because to everyone else they didn't exist and to everyone outside this room they don't either. They've been charmed that only I and those I allow get to see them as I am a part of her direct bloodline. The descendents of the other two witches that have placed a curse on you don't have things like these, they have grimories but that witch's cookbook has nothing about the original spells in them as I'm sure Daehyun and Maddix have realised by now. The information they were really looking for was stored in their memories, something both of them failed to consider before killing them."

"You're really the last living relative of all three witches?"

"I am."

"I'm sorry for your loss..." Chanyeol didn't even know what words he could say, knowing that the witch had probably already heard them all before.

"I'm safe within the walls of Millenium High, you and the rest of the protectors make sure of that." Colin cleared his throat. "And when you guys can't do it then it's up to the rest of the werewolves and vampires."

"Can you give me a straight answer now?" Chanyeol huffed, not meaning to sound so cruel but he was just too tired. "Will I die if I tell Baekhyun I love him right now?"

"Yes."

"And if I bite him, will he live?"

"Yes."

"What more do you have to say?" Chanyeol wondered, looking the girl in the eye before her gaze fell back into her mug. The Alpha watched as Colin gently draped an arm over her shoulder, begging her without words to continue.

"I know that you won't want to say that you love him because you know now that it would kill you, but Chanyeol I have to inform you that you may not have a choice."

"Elaborate..." The werewolf begged, shifting in his position on the couch so that he was more comfortable. He was down to one last mouthful of coffee, Colin already getting up to brew some more.

"Part of your curse was that you -as you already know from your mother- would grow up until fate decided for you and Baekhyun to meet, you would both fall in love and whichever one of you confessed first, would die first then a little while later the other would follow." Chanyeol nodded his head, already aware of that part of the curse since his mother had explained it to him and Baekhyun before. "Yeah, that's not technically true either."

"Are you saying that my mother got it wrong?" Chanyeol asked, looking confused.

"Yes." Colin exclaimed at the same time that his mate hissed a "No!"

"She merely misunderstood as it was part of the spell, you appear dead in looks and your body would slow down completely so that it would make it seem like you no longer have a pulse. But in reality you are -in lack of better words- knocked out."

"So kind of like a coma but not really." Colin nodded, explaining further what his mate was trying to convey. Chanyeol dipped his head seemingly following along.

"Okay, so I go into this comatosed state of being after I confess my love to Baekhyun?"

"Yes exactly."

"Okay so what happens then?"

"You are brought to a certain place in your dormant mind probably somewhere in your subconscious that was created by this curse inflicted on you and Baekhyun by my ancestor and her coven members, you keeping up with me so far?"

"I think so."

"In this place of being, you are put through tests of some sort that would determine the loyalty both you and Baekhyun have for one another."

"Do you happen to know what these tests are?"

"I do," Skylar confirmed, standing up from her chair. Chanyeol watched her intently as she scanned through the journals lining her bookcase, he couldn't see anything that would tell them apart from one another but he supposes that Skylar could after seeing and studying them her whole life. "As they are a test of loyalty the witches wanted to make sure that the love you both felt for each other was real. The you that fell for the Baekhyun in your timeline."

"You can't mean that everytime I go to this state of being I find myself being tempted by another Baekhyun that has already passed on from failing the test before?"

"That's exactly what I mean." Skylar nodded her head, pulling out the journal she was looking for. Chanyeol watched with wide eyes and a hanging jaw as she quickly scanned through the pages, nodding her head as she went. "Yeah I got that right."

"s with the mind for a bit doesn't it?" Colin commented, coming over with a new mug of coffee. Chanyeol exchanged with the one he had just finished drinking, already taking a sip of it to help process the information.

"Does that mean that because I fail that's why Baekhyun goes into a death like sleep later?"

"No." Skylar shakes her head, her nose buried in her ancestor's journal. She clambered back into her spot on the armchair, Colin by her side in seconds. "You both are mates, which means that neither one of you can survive without the other being alive. I know that I already said that you're not technically dead when you go to this dormant part of your subconscious but according to your mate then technically you are. I wouldn't think too much into it, it is quite late so let me just be clear. You supposedly die and after three hours Baekhyun does the exact same thing, you both have your tests and even if one of you passes it, you will still die because the other didn't. Which has happened six hundred and forty times already!"

"I believe that we can do it this time." Chanyeol spoke up, his eyes lost on the air in front of him. "I've seen Baekhyun's dreams and I can say for certainty that we have both grown so much from those boys we have seen there."

"You're welcome for that by the way." Skylar giggled, closing over the journal and resting it on her knee. Chanyeol raised a brow, his lips opening to question it but the witch bet him to it. "I'm the one that gave Baekhyun those dreams and I still am so I can say for certain that the last one will come tonight, but it won't be a pretty one so you should prepare yourself for that."

"Should I even bother to ask how you did that?" Chanyeol chuckled, suddenly seeing this girl in a new light. He knew that she meant well but he also knew how much terrible Baekhyun had with those dreams, the boy partially terrified to sleep one time.

"Katherine," she answered like it was the most obvious answer. "I told you already she figured out the loopholes."

"Tell me again what you need from me, in order to make sure that things go to plan or in which they were written."

"Well I want you to fall through with Baekhyun's plan," Skylar shifted from her teasing smile into a more serious looking frown. "bite him in front of Maddix and Daehyun. Your venom won't have any effect because it's already been in his system from the amount of times you have let him drink your blood and also -just so I can drill it into your head- Daehyun failed in breaking that spell. He will have the mark and like any other fated marked pair the venom will travel throughout his body before disappearing completely, leaving behind his claiming mark from this lifetime. When that's done I'll make sure to check it to see that it is going to plan and then I will ask you to confess to him, to which you will die and I'll be forced to explain everything to him again. You both will face off on your tests and hopefully regain your memories, true mate claiming marks and above all your powers which I believe you will need in order to defeat your brother and his minions."

"So in other words, no pressure bro." Colin chuckled nervously, looking over at his friend who had already drank his second cup of coffee.

"Is that all?" Chanyeol gulped, leaning forward to place the mug onto the coffee table.

"Yes, that's all I have for you." Skylar offered him a small smile. "I do have a request though, if you wouldn't mind."

"I'm not sure if I can grant it right now-"

"I want to introduce myself to Baekhyun, I've only ever seen him from afar. I would feel honoured to be able to speak to the other boy that I have read so much about."

"He could be asleep right now-"

"You're wide awake, I have no doubt that he is too." Skylar grinned, jumping up from her seat and running out the door. Colin and Chanyeol left behind to watch her go in confusion.

"Would now be the worst time to tell her that she is a transforming witch?"

"What does that mean?"

"That she will most likely shift herself to look like you."

"So she's preparing Baekhyun for our test?"

"I'm glad that I don't have to explain that part to you on top of everything else, you think you will be okay?"

"I know that I love him, that's more than enough!"
 

~~~