One by one, each of the books were gone through, all of them had one to three words circled word circled in it.

"This is like word scramble." Renee groaned "Makes no since whatsoever!"

"If this is another riddle," Viveca said, we'll never figure it out.

"You should keep your books organized, Corinne. Alphabetical order is always best."

"Alphabetical order." Corinne said "He always told me to keep my books in alphabetical order."

"Ooh!" Aramina stepped forward "Allow me."

"By all means."

It took Aramina all of five seconds to get the sixteen books rearranged "Tada!"

"Will wonders never cease." Renee mumbled.

Louis flipped through the books and wrote down the words in the order they appeared. Several minutes later he slid the paper over to Corinne "Here you go."

She sent him a smile and looked at the finished product:

It burned with fire and smelled of smoke

And now in ruins it lays

Ask your mother, this is no joke

if you wish to find where the secrets lay

"Maybe Griffin killed him because he couldn't stand his riddles." Renee teased.

Corinne shook her head "Come on. Let's get back. I want to ask mom about this place that burned."

"We're taking the passageway back, right?" Aramina asked "I don't want to walk the whole road distance."

"Yep." Corinne nodded "And I agree. The passageway is much quicker. Which is really weird."

Louis stood up and held his hands down to her "Shall we?"

"Yep." Corinne laughed as she grabbed his hands and stood.

Aramina burst into a fit of giggles as the young queen stood up on her toes and kissed the king.

Renee rolled her eyes "Can we go now? Please?"

Corinne chuckled "Let's go."

Once they got back to the palace, Corrine sought out her mother. Marie was found in the parlor still knitting.

"Mom." Corinne said with a smile "What are you doing?"

"Well, I have no chores to do so I'm bored." Marie responded "So I may as well prepare for my..."

"Momma!" Corinne laughed "Shh!"

Marie sat her knitting down in her lap "Don't tell me. You still haven't told him."

"No. I can't."

"Why not?"

"He'll try to make me give up on this whole endeavor." Corinne shook her head "I have to finish this. I just have to!"

"He deserves to know, Honey." Marie pointed out "Before it arrives."

"They." Corinne said with a cough.

Marie's jaw dropped "What!? Well I'd better get busy! And you had better tell him!"

"I can't!"

Marie's eyebrows lurched "Uh..."

"Mamma. I am not him about the babies. Not yet."

"Care to explain why?"

Corinne froze then spun around to see Louis standing in the doorway.

"That's what I was going to say." Marie whispered "By the way. He's behind you."

"What 'babies'?" Louis asked slowly.

Corinne simply walked from the room.

Marie chuckled "I would love to be a fly on the wall for this whole conversation."

"Corinne." Louis said, following his wife who was heading for the door "What... Babies?"

Corinne remained silent as she walked for the front door, passing the girls, Tyrone and Jack on the way.

"It'd just be as friends." Tyrone was saying to Renee "You know... a friend date."

Renee nodded "Sure."

Jack... well... he was still trying to figure out why Aramina wouldn't so much as look at him.

"Why are you not answering me?" Louis asked "Who's babies?"

Corinne smiled at her friends and walked out the door.

"What have we missed?" Viveca asked slowly "And why on earth is he talking about..."

"Oh!" the three girls finished in unison, then they all burst out laughing.

Corinne was making a B-line for the lighthouse. Determined to get there before she said anything. Right when she reached the door of the lighthouse, Louis grabbed her arm and turned her to face him.

"What babies, Corinne?"

She let out a long sigh "Ours, Louis. Ours." then she turned and walked through the door, leaving a dumbstruck Louis staring after her?

"Ours?" Louis shook his head then shot after her "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was waiting for the right time." Corinne answered, climbing the long circular staircase.

"Which would have been when?" Louis asked, still following "You weren't going to tell me because of Flint Griffin, Right?"

"Exactly."

"Corinne!" he ran up the stairs "You didn't say anything because you knew what'd I'd say."

"Exactly."

"Well, then be prepared. We're leaving."

Corinne had just stepped out onto the balcony of the lighthouse. She spun around "What!? No! Louis we can't!"

"We have to! I can't lose you and... it... them?"

"Them." Corinne shook her head "Don't you see? Flint Griffin has to be stopped, Louis. He'll just keep terrorizing people. He has to be stopped!"

"Then let someone else do it."

"Louis. We discussed this when we got married. Before we got married. I'm a musketeer. I'm going to get in danger. It's just a part of my life! I thought you understood that."

"I do. But..."

"Then what is the problem?"

Louis shook his head and grabbed her shoulders "I don't want to lose you too, Corinne! You're all I have left!"

Corinne raised one of her hands to place it over the hand on her shoulder "You're not going to lose me." she whispered "And... there's more to why I have to do this. I need to do it. I need to defeat the fear that leaves me frozen in place. And the only way to do that is to defeat the man that gave it to me."

"There's nothing wrong with being afraid." Louis said quietly.

"I know. The problem comes when you let it control you." She sighed "I've got to break that control."

After a long moment, Louis slowly nodded "I understand." then he smiled "Just please be careful."

"I will. I promise." she turned and walked over to the railing "I really do love it here."

He leaned against the railing as he had before, her in between his arms "I'm glad." another moment of silence followed "So... about the... um..."

Corinne grinned and turned around "Twins."

"Twins?" He chuckled and shook his head "Twins. What would we name them?"

Corinne's smile slowly faded as she felt the railing behind her slowly give.

"What if they're both boys?" Louis mused, looking up at the sky "Or both girls."

Corinne looked at the metal rail behind her back then down to the smaller ones that connected it to the porch. After a moment, she noticed very thin slice marks in the metal. She looked back to the larger rod that ran behind her. About a foot away on both sides were the same thing. Cuts in the metal, weakening it to the weight that was being pushed into it.

Corinne's breath caught as she felt it give a little more "Louis."She said slowly.

He looked down at her, his smile instantly vanishing "What's wrong?"

"The railing." She answered, trying to push herself away from it with as little strain as possible "It's been..."

She was cut off as whole piece of railing gave way behind her, and she and Louis were both pitched towards the hard ground.

(NOOOOOoooooooo... *poof! Little cloud of dust* Flint Griffin returns! Mwa-ha-ha! Okay, I'm guessing two... maybe three more chapters. We'll see how much more torture Corinne and her friends will let me put them through :D Thanks for all the F-F-and-R's everyone! Laterz!)