Chapter 1

Sam jumped off his houseboat onto the dock, trying not to make much noise so that he wouldn't wake Dekka or Edilio.

It was three in the morning. He was so tired that his eyes were stinging, but he just couldn't go back to bed. This had happened every night for the past week. He would wake up in the middle of the night, longing for her. He needed her.

Astrid Ellison. The only girl he ever loved.

As much as he hated to admit it, Sam had never felt like this before. He had never felt so...abandoned. He had had a taster of that feeling when his step-dad left, but it wasn't this bad.

He felt so pathetic.

Suddenly he heard a noise behind him, like twigs breaking. He quickly turned around with his hands up, ready to fire if necessary. There had been no trouble in that first week at the lake, but that didn't mean that Sam didn't expect it.

"Just me, Sam." He heard Diana's voice.

"Oh." He said, trying to mask his reaction. Relief, that it wasn't someone worse. Disappointment, that it wasn't the one person he wanted. He lit up an orb of light so that he could see her more clearly. She had dark circles around her eyes. "You should be resting." He said.

She scoffed. "Oh please, Sam. I'm pregnant. I'm not dying of a terminal illness." She paused. "At least, I hope not."

Sam smiled uncomfortably. He still didn't really know how to talk to her. She was always 'Diana the witch', and now she was 'Diana the pregnant girl who chose to stay with Sam instead of his evil twin brother'. He couldn't understand her.

"Are you OK?" Sam asked, knowing it was a stupid question. It was obvious that she wasn't. "I mean, this time last week, you were fine. And now..."

"I'm just tired." She said. "But I can't sleep." She looked up at him in the dim light. "Let me guess; you're missing Blondie."

Sam looked back at her. "Yeah." He said, trying to sound casual. "Yeah, I guess so." They fell silent for a while. "Why can't you sleep?" He asked.

Diana took a deep breath. Sam was awkwardly aware that this was the first actual conversation they ever had. "I thought I could change him, Sam." There was no doubt that 'him' referred to. "He said he'd change. For me. And then he turned into a jerk again." She paused, thinking. "You know he actually forced me off that island? I could have been perfectly happy there. He forced me to join him so I could be a 'queen' in his pathetic little kingdom."

Sam didn't know what to say. Her speech was so full of resentment, of anger. "I'm sorry." He said.

Diana laughed, but it was a bitter sound. "Maybe I chose the wrong brother."

He smiled, but quickly changed the subject. "Isn't it kind of weird that..." He stopped himself. They weren't really friends, but he still didn't want to worry her.

"What?" She asked, curious. "Tell me."

Sam paused before speaking. "It's just that...you said he forced you to join him, right? He knows by now that you've left. So why hasn't he come back for you yet?"

Diana smiled sadly, staring across the lake. "You should know by now that Caine never does what you expect him to do."

Dekka woke up early the next morning. She looked out of the small window in her room and saw all the other boats lined up along the dock. She wondered idly whether Brianna was still asleep.

Dekka went out into the living room area of the boat and saw Sam crashing on the sofa. She smiled fondly. He never ended up sleeping in his own bed, even though she and Edilio had given him the master bedroom. She found a blanket and threw it over him.

She went outside and breathed in the beautifully fresh air. It was easy to pretend that she was on some camping trip to the lake, but the FAYZ wall was still visible. It was a constant reminder of where they were.

Dekka sat on the dock and dipped her feet in the cool water.

As much as she had been heartbroken by that fact that Brianna was avoiding her, she thought that maybe she could be happy. It was a nice life, there at the lake.

Then she noticed Diana, who was also sitting on a large rock nearby. She looked so tired.

But then Dekka told herself that she shouldn't be worrying. She remembered that from the beginning Diana had always been cruel to her. She had always been on Caine's side. No matter how many lives he took, no matter how many horrible crimes he committed, she was always on his side.

But Dekka's anger didn't last long.

She had noticed Brianna jumping out of her boat, with Jack not far behind.

Diana was tired.

But 'tired' was an understatement.

She was exhausted. She knew it would not be long before she passed out.

She had seen Dekka staring at her. Not with sympathy, with hate. A lot of people hated Diana.

She finally stood up after hours of sitting by the lake and headed to her own boat. Her own, lonely boat. Sam had insisted that she stay in a boat instead of a tent, so that she would be comfortable. But no one else had volunteered to stay with her, and she wasn't pathetic enough to ask anyone, so she chose the smallest one and lived there alone.

She had thought that breaking away from Caine; power-hungry, over-ambitious Caine, she would be free. Free to make her own choices without having her life revolving around his. And there were good people at the lake; people like Sam, Dekka, Sanjit. People who could help her when she had her baby.

She was actually excited when she first arrived at the lake.

But the more she stayed there, the more alone she felt. And she hated her small, isolated boat. So she found herself awake most nights, outside, by the lake.

Diana lay down on her bed and tried to let sleep take her. She was starting to worry herself.

She knew that she had to stop being like this, otherwise she would start going crazy. People would start laughing at her as well as hate her. And she had a baby on the way.

Diana groaned. She knew it was going to be difficult. But she knew that if there was anything that would redeem her from what she had done in the past, it was raising a good kid.

She finally felt her thoughts blur together as she fell asleep.

Caine looked at the room around him. He had lost it. Again.

He hoped that Turk wouldn't tell anyone else about Caine's fits of temper. He had to be a good king. But then again, Turk was someone who was so scared of Caine that he wouldn't say a word.

Caine left the trashed up room.

He only ever lost control after he had been thinking about her. After he had thought about her and dreamed about her.

He had thought that no matter how many people abandoned him; his birth-parents, his foster-parents...he always thought that he would still have Diana.

And then she left him.

He had given her some time. He thought she would get over it; she would realise that she belonged with him, and would come back. She had gotten over it before.

But a few days had turned into a week. There was still no sign of her.

Caine walked back into the trashed up room, where Turk was now cleaning up after him. "Turk." He said. "Go get Taylor. I need to speak with her."

It was time to get Diana back.