Sorry I went for so long without updating, I've been a little discouraged. This is for my two viewers. How are you guys doing?

Will saddled his horse up. He had paid the innkeeper enough money for Jake to stay for three weeks, he would be back in one. There had been a bad hour. Jake kept insisting that Lotte was in the room and that she was telling him things. Will was praying for the first time in ten years, and no one was answering.

His horse shifted a little under his weight, but Will gripped the reigns tightly in both hands. He kicked his horse sharply and thundered out of the village, he didn't have any time.

Adala watched him go, a small, sad smile playing on her lips. "You ride as fast as you want Wilhelm, your sister was a hard bargain..." She whispered, leaning on her gnarled walking stick.

She turned and made her way into the inn. Whispering to herself as she went.

Jacob rolled onto the floor with a thump, his sister was there, instantly, stroking his hair. "Easy Jake, Will will be back soon."

Jake closed his eyes again, his chest felt bruised and they stung like a fire had been lit within him. "I never, I never got to say...sorry." He gasped it out and panted.

"I know Jacob, I forgive you."

Jake smiled a little and winced. "Good."

"But, I made a bargain Jakey," She whispered close to his ear. "And neither you nor I can go back on it."

Jake opened his eyes and looked at her.

"I know it's gonna be hard, but you will live."

"I'm sick?" Somehow he should have known. Then why was Will gone?

Lotte ignored his question. "There is a price."

Will unsaddled his horse, the stable boy was absent for some reason. He had ridden through the rain to reach the university. The guards at the gates of the city were quite surly and had only pointed in the direction of the school before closing the wrought iron gates again.

All in all, it had not been a pleasant trip.

Adala entered the room, her gray skirt sweeping up the dust. Jake was on the floor, and the ghost of his sister was sitting beside him, his head in her lap. She grimaced as guilt stirred within her, she had never thought to become so evil as to hurt innocent bystanders. But her anger was still raw, and she hadn't forgiven will. Not by a long shot.

But the sister had argued and cried and fought like a wild cat. So Adala had given in, Jacob would live. But there was a catch.

She knelt by the siblings, separated only by death they surveyed her with varying degrees of anger, curiosity, and impatience.

"Who are you?" The brother asked, his voice hoarse with pain.

"Adala." She snapped at him, annoyed at his kind tone. She needed no pity, not from a dying man.

"Well, I would welcome you in but I can't get up. It turns out I'm dying" He laughed breathlessly and his features hardened again as he began to hack up blood.

"Yes."

The sister looked up at that. "You promised." there was no whine or sorrow in the accusation, only flat anger and impatience.

She liked Lotte.

"He needs to understand the conditions and the agreement. He needs to be bound to his word."

'Then hurry up. There is no time." There was a strange urgency about her words and expression, she was gripping tight to her brother's shoulder

They were a strange pair. Brother and sister, so close and yet separated by a fragile yet almost unbreakable barrier. And such a heavy link, even though their bond had been tested by time and death. Adala shook her head touched his forehead. "Now, Jacob Grimm, I want you to swear on your sisters grave that you will never go looking for your brother and you will only meet when coincidence brings you two together?"

Jacob swung his feverish head toward Lotte. "What?" He asked. He couldn't concentrate, his head hurt.

"Just say 'I do'."

"I do."

"Also swear that you will leave this village and never return, and that before you go, you will break me free of this curse which binds me to this body."

Jacob was becoming increasingly agitated, he breath was panting and sweat was shining on his forehead in large oily drops, Mingling with the dried blood on his face.

There was silence, Adala, forced his head toward her. "Promise me Jacob!"

"I-" He panted, his chest heaving for oxygen, "I do."

Adala leaned down and kissed him. Jacob could feel the heaviness leave his limbs. The aching in his chest that he had grown used to was gone, leaving in its place a warm, pleasant feeling suffusing his heart.

Lotte stroked his cheek one last time and disappeared from his sight. Adala however remained completely still, her lumpy face held aloft as it began to change.

Jacob watched in bemused fascination as her cheeks gained definition, her eyes lost their sickly sheen and her hair lengthened and grew full. She was a princess for the fairy tales, her regal stance so very different from the slouching hunchback she had been molded into.

She stretched reveling in the freeness of her movement. She turned back to Jake, her arm outstretched but he was fast asleep, his arms folded to his sides.

Adala pushed a chair over to the desk and pulled a pen and some paper out of a drawer. She smiled nastily as she began to write.

Feel free to review, I could really use some nice comments at the moment.

Sorry that was a bad chapter, I promise the next one will be better