Declan: They crouched outside the circle just inside the treeline. The clearing appeared to be empty, but they could feel the magical shield around the place. Eros very quietly told them it wasn’t the same one the first witch had cast. It wasn’t a protection spell. It was something completely different, much stronger. “Can you break it?” Eros whispered to Aster. “I don’t know. I’ll try.” She hovered her hand in the air and pushed forward, it didn’t go through the invisible barrier. The energy built up around her, and he felt a whoosh of hot air. Aster shook her head. “Well, that didn’t work,” she sounded amused, instead of afraid. “How are we going to get through?” Declan asked. “Don’t worry,” she said, “I am going to try love. It’s stronger than hate.” “Love doesn’t kill.” “But it can break spells.” She smiled at him. The energy he felt from her this time was completely different. Warm, like the hate wave (as

Declan:It didn’t make any sense. Aster couldn’t be dead. She wasn’t decapitated, but he remembered the dead vampires on the lawn…none of them had any external injuries either. Dropping his sword, he put his head in his hands, crying. It was as if someone was slowly cutting him in half. Declan didn’t care about the fighting going on around him. More vampires joined the fray, including some of their own fighters, but he just couldn’t care. In fact, he hoped someone would come by and decapitate him, so he wouldn’t have to feel like this anymore.Aster lay on her back, staring at the stars, her last smile frozen on her lips. He couldn’t sit here, looking at the light leaving her beautiful eyes -- he reached out to close them.Declan didn’t mean to do it. She wasn’t quite dead yet, and somehow he connected with her. One moment, he was sitting in that circle, staring at his dead bride, the

Declan: When he heard Aster’s voice, he lost his concentration and plummeted several feet before he caught himself and straightened. Declan stared at her in disbelief. He hadn’t felt her at all, and when he reached out to her, there was nothing but a black void. There was no bond between them anymore. He hovered with Matthew in the air, watching the events below them unfold, and then for no apparent reason his brother shot past him to attack Cyrus before he could stop him. He flinched as Matthew hit the stones below, hearing his bones break. Aster stood not far from Cyrus, her black hair blowing behind her like a bridal veil. He felt it all the way up here – the terrible power. She stood with her hands on her hips, her legs planted far apart from each other, a cold, emotionless smile on her face. Cyrus roared with rage and terror, trying his best to move, but he was rooted to the spot like a statue. Aster looked up. “Come down.”

Aster: Declan kicked open the door of a random house, still cradling her close. He looked around the empty front room, then went upstairs. “There’s no one here,” he said. Aster hadn’t ask, and she didn’t care. All she felt was the guilt of the terrible thing she had done, and the loss of their people would haunt her forever, she was sure. Not just Lydia, as she came to learn, but Samuel, Lucy, Elizabeth, and God only knew how many others. If she hadn’t taken a little detour to the afterlife, none of them would have died. She would have gotten to Cyrus in time. It didn’t occur to her that it had to happen that way. That the witch absorbing her power was the only way to kill her. The only way they could finally get to Cyrus. Declan found a bedroom and lowered her to the floor before flicking on a light. Whomever lived here didn’t leave too long ago; there were no signs of abandonment. The place was neat and still clean, and she could sm

Aster: Aster only had one thought running through her mind as she drifted off to sleep. I want him back. Even in her sleep, it was all she could think about, and as she slipped deeper into the darkness, she dreamed about Declan calling to her, telling her to come back to him.   ** She hears him calling out to her. He’s somewhere out there in the darkness. “Come to me,” he pleads, “find me.” “Where are you?” she calls back. “I can’t see.” The place is too dark. The kind of darkness that grabs you and won’t let go. The kind of darkness she only experienced once before: in the in-between. “Aster!” Declan screams. “Find me. Come to me.” “I can’t see anything,” she sobs into the darkness. “Why can’t you come to me?” “I’m stuck. Please. Find me.” He sounds so desperately afraid. So lonely. In turn, Aster’s heart cries out to him. She wants to feel his strong, comforting arms around her.