Five Months Later It’s been five months since Alexander died. In that time, I’ve not left the castle. I could go anywhere I wanted, but that’s the thing. I don’t want to go anywhere. Not for another two months, at least. When the baby comes, I cannot stay here. It’s fine to isolate myself in the middle of the jungle with no contact with the outside world save for a vampire butler who refuses to leave, but I cannot do that to a child. When she comes–according to Phillip, who can sense a ton of things I’d normally need an ultrasound for, it’s a girl–I want to give her a normal life. As normal as I can before she grows up and finds out she is a werewolf. I don’t plan on looking for a werewolf community. There are werewolves who live in the human world, perfectly hidden. As long as I raise and teach her well, it can be just the two of us, living a peaceful life away from the chaos in the supernatural world. When I leave the castle, I intend to move to one of the houses Alexander lef

Eric’s POV Gwen and I are a pair of star-crossed soulmates. That’s what the High Priestess told me in my past life while trying to dissuade me from going through the ritual that would keep me around for half a century. She said no matter how many lives our paths crossed, it would never end well. I don’t think I entirely believed her back then. After all, she was the same person who took Ruby’s life with a lie. She could have been lying to get out of performing the ritual because it was forbidden and would cost her. Even if she was telling the truth, it wouldn’t have changed my mind. It’s okay if I never get to be with her, as long as I can protect her. I had hope that would be for at least a few years before my spirit dissipated. But all I’ve gotten are a few months so far. And unless I convince Gwen to give Stefan another chance, that might be all that I get. We make the switch in the morning. I told Stefan I can rob him of his body. I was bluffing. I’ll be lucky if I can hol

Stefan’s POV It’s not until I watch the flames engulf her body that all hope dies within me. Gwen is gone. She is dead. When I saw her at the castle two nights ago, I thought I had time. Now, I have all the time in the world, but I don’t have her. I have nothing. And it’s all my fault. If I’d never let her leave, this would not have happened. Heck, if I’d left her alone that night I found her at the nightclub, she would be alright. ‘You can delay fate, but you cannot change it.’ That’s what Eric said when I woke up in the middle of the jungle after he went off running last night. She was meant to die, that’s what he meant. That it didn’t matter what I did or failed to do. She would have died anyway, at that exact time. He said the High Priestess never mentioned it. She told him about his own demise, but not a word about Gwen’s. Why did she insist on sacrificing Gwen in her past life when she must have known she would die young? Because then, she must have known that Gwen