Magic has a scent, the more powerful the witch the stronger it was. A siphoner, a freak of nature, could sniff it out like a shark sensing blood. That was one of the reasons he had been in Virginia, he had caught a faint scent that would come and go. A soft hum of magic that made his bones ache and jaw clench. He had been so starved for so long that he had convinced himself that any traces of magic he detected on the air was just his imagination.

Bonnie changed that. He had felt her, a latent undercurrent that shuddered from the ground, up his legs and back but he had dismissed it. She was an underground river of power deeply buried under her stifling feelings of guilt and anger. Even blocked she was one of the most powerful witches he had ever come across.

He had wanted to eat her whole, leave her hollow and empty in his arms. Not now.

Now he sighed and shrugged at her look of wide eyed shock. He found her fascinating in a way, how her emotions governed every aspect of her being, so intrinsically tied to her magic that they could drag it down like a lead weight. She was very, very brave because she was terrified but she could dissemble in a way he appreciated.

"What made you come back here?" he asked, taking a step forward. She took a step back.

"…That doesn't matter. You – you killed your brothers and sisters," she said it more to herself, her head shaking as her eyes fell to the picture of his family at her feet. Tears welled up in her eyes. "She was so young."

"Eleanor? I know. If it makes you feel any better she was an accident. I kinda snapped after her."

It was true. He had stabbed Jo and threatened to kill their siblings, drain them of magic, until she agreed to merge with him. Eleanor lying dead at the bottom of the staircase had been an unfortunate development. When his curly haired harpy of a sister had jumped on his back it had been lights out for him. He could barely remember, even now, just the giddy rush of blood and magic running through his veins.

Bonnie had moved around the couch, inching towards the door. "You don't even care. I can see it on your face. You're a psycho."

Her affront was diluting her shock. Kai smiled and shook his head. "I'm a sociopath, actually. Listen, I know all this is a big shock and you're probably thinking I lied to you–"

"Probably?! It's been months! You never once mentioned you murdered kids!"

"Cause I knew you'd react like this. You're a good person."

She shook her head, staring at the blood over the walls. Fuck the reset. He had woke up before dawn one morning to clean up, drive the police cars away so he could show her where he lived. In retrospect it was a stupid thing to do but he had to admit her finally knowing the truth was a relief. She would have found out one day so it might as well be now.

"I can't be in here anymore," she said and walked from the room. She didn't run, she walked with a rigid stride until she was outside. Kai followed at a distance, eyeing her from the porch steps. He held out his arms.

"There, now you know everything. My sister wouldn't agree to merge with me, I fucking lost it and I killed them. My dad, your granny and the Gemini locked me away for it."

She watched him take a humourless bow. Her magic got pushed down even deeper as her chin lifted, she inhaled a breath and a passive mask fell over her features. Fuck.

"I'm going home."

She turned on her heel and started walking. The smile on Kai's face dropped and he hurried to catch up, knocking over the evidence markers in his haste. He reached her, close to her back, but slowed as her fists clenched but she did not flinch. He admired that about her.

"Listen nothing has changed okay? The plan is the same. We're gonna find the ascendant and we're both getting out."

She said nothing and it was aggravating. He wished she would scream and cry, anything but this hostile, forced calm. It was tinged with indifference, like he was now not worthy of her time or attention.

She reached the car she had arrived in, the police lights flashing around them. She grabbed the handle but he snaked his hand around her wrist. It was the first time he had touched her and she stiffened. Their eyes locked.

"I'm not gonna hurt you Bon. I could have sucked you dry of magic, left you for dead but I didn't. I won't."

"…Why not? You're a sociopath, you have no conscience holding you back."

"Exactly. I've never had hang ups about taking what I wanted before, until you," he stared into her green eyes with sincerity. "You're the first person, the first witch, to treat me like a human being, like an equal despite being a siphoner. I never thought how much that would get to me but it does. You do. I've never felt this way about -"

"I don't wanna hear it," she twisted her wrist out of his grip and tried to open the door but he stayed pressed against her back, hindering her movements.

"It's the truth. I've been here alone for eighteen years until you arrived. I admit at first I was gonna take your magic once I found the ascendant but not now. I still want you to come with me. I need you to."

"And what?" she turned, anger simmering under her control. Her magic was like a volcano. "We get out, I let you out and you go on a killing spree?"

He frowned and laughed. "I'm not a serial killer. Well technically I am but that's semantics," he waved his hand.

"So you get out and what?"

"I merge, like I've told you. I find Jo, I win she loses and the freaks that make up my coven have a new leader."

"And no one dies?" she looked into his face, their bodies close.

He opened his mouth to answer but hesitated. Originally he had wanted every single Gemini to die, young and old so intense was his rage but over the years his revenge had shifted to those who had personally sent him to this hell. It seemed perfectly understandable to him and he knew there was a streak in Bonnie, a vengeful bitter anger that she kept buried deep that understood that need.

"Only those who deserve to."

Bonnie made a noise of disgust and shoved him away but he grabbed her arm again, pulling her against him. Her magic roared up within her at the movement, like he was shaking a cola bottle about to explode. He had been waiting months, very patiently, for her magic to emerge and he knew that removing the block was to make her vent her inner anger and helplessness at her situation. It was frankly unhealthy, even he knew that.

He stepped back and smiled. "Bon you're so fucking angry right now your magic is roaring inside you. Just let it go. If you wanna hurt me do it. I promise you'll feel better, I always do," he spread out his arms in invitation as she bared her teeth.

"You're fucking sick!"

"Just trying to help," he lowered his arms as she made a strangled noise and wrenched open the door. Kai pulled her back again. "Nah – ah, I'm driving." He got behind the steering wheel, still keeping hold of her, and watched her eyes darting to one of the police cars. His fingers tighten around her wrist. "Get in the car Bonnie."

His voice was soft but the threat was beating against her pulse point. He could and would siphon her into submission if he had to. Bonnie saw the truth in his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath in. She nodded and he let her go. Kai rifled through some cassette tapes as she got in beside him. He grinned as he found a tape and slid it in.

"I love this album. You like Counting Crows?"

As Mr Jones began to play, covering her silence, she turned to look out of the window. Kai shrugged and drove away from his house, the spot lights and police lights fading from the rear view mirror. It was always a relief to leave that shithole.

She spoke little but Kai was eager to talk. It felt like he could finally be himself now. He had been careful not to reveal too much about his past, firstly to see how long he could get away with it and lastly because he had sunk into some sort of needy softness for the way she spoke and touched him. His main goal, as ever, was to get out but he had stalled to just experience what it was like to have a strange but functioning relationship with a woman. A witch. He could do it and she had wanted it to. That did not have to change.

"I told you about my past, how I was treated. I never made that up. It really messed me up."

Bonnie watched the dark houses flicking past. He had been driving for an hour, not wanting to stop or let her out. He wanted her to answer him and finally she did.

"It's no excuse. You talk like you killed, I don't know, insects or something. They were your family," she looked at him in appalled judgement.

"If I had the capacity to feel bad about it I would. It's not like I can and I'm choosing not to. I literally can't. It's just not something I'm burdened with."

She bit the inside of her mouth and looked away. "You must feel so light. You must feel nothing."

"That's not true. I can feel happiness and anger, just like you. They just don't govern my actions. Well, not always. Come on how much do your emotions direct you? Your magic is smothered by them."

"I'd rather have my guilt and sorrow drown my magic if it meant I could feel. It's what makes you human."

Kai clenched his jaw, The Smashing Pumpkins playing around them quietly. "Not a freak like me you mean?"

"I never said that."

"You're thinking it."

Bonnie turned to him, her gaze sharp. "You wanna know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking you're no different to those serial killers who target those who are vulnerable, men who have no conscience and kill without remorse. You being a siphoner has nothing to do with what you did. If you weren't born into a family of witches you'd be in death row with the rest of those killers."

Kai nodded in agreement. "I would yeah. You don't think I wish I had gone to death row in Salem rather than endure this? I should have died years ago. They have the lethal injection here, I'd be dead, really dead but that would be a mercy. My family wanted to make me suffer this forever," he waved a hand at the empty road and the trees that flicked passed. They were heading out of Portland. "You have a conscience Bonnie, you're good but do you really think you'd get free and not want to get back at the people who think it's acceptable to punish like this? With no chance of pardon? Would you want witches with all that power in your coven? No, fuck them."

She stared at his restrained anger in consideration until she looked away. "…I wouldn't have made it that long."

Kai watched her as she looked away, the sunrise still hours away. He wanted to touch her. "That's why I could never leave you here. I thought about it. If you tried to stop me, that's what I thought at first but that changed."

"How romantic," she murmured and he smiled briefly. She had not mentioned their relationship, the betrayal she must be feeling but it was in there, entwined more personally then her outrage at his crimes. She loved him, he was sure she did and that did not just disappear. It was like magic.

"I thought I'd get out, leave you behind for a short time until I merged and sorted my coven out and then come back for you. I didn't want you to find out. But then you got hurt and didn't heal like me so I knew I couldn't risk it."

"What?"

"Your life."

He watched the emotion flashing over her face, trying to parse them but it was too quick. Was she touched? Embarrassed? Either way her face settled into an expression of disbelief.

"If I tried to stop you from leaving you'd siphon me?"

"I don't want to. Come on Bon, this doesn't have to get messy. We both want the same thing. For now we'll just focus on getting out and then we'll talk about the rest."

"When I get out I'm getting as far away from you as possible," as she said it she pressed herself closer to the passenger door. Kai clenched his jaw and looked aside.

"So it was all bullshit then?"

"What?"

"Your feelings for me?"

She laughed bitterly in outrage. "Are you seriously asking me that? I'm sitting here wondering if you're thinking about killing me and you're accusing me of lying about us?"

"Of course I'm not gonna kill you. It's like you hate me."

"You lied to me!"

"I told you I was a killer and that's why I was in here. You hang around with damn vampires and mind reading immortals who killed your family and friends. I think you're being a little hypocritical," he held his thumb and fingers apart.

She inhaled an angry breath through her nose. "You lied through omission. You lead me on for months," her hands trembled and her eyes grew glossy.

"I did omit things because I didn't want to drive you away. But I never lied about what I feel for you. I might not feel as deeply as you but it's there. I didn't think I was capable but then I met you when it should be impossible. Nothing has changed for me. You and me can rule, that offer is still there, that life and everything it entails. I want that, I want you more than I thought I could."

"…I don't wanna hear anymore," she said with a tired sadness and he realised as midnight approached that it was the now 2013 in the real world.

"Fine. Sleep, we'll be at the airport soon."

"Where are we going?"

"Virginia."

She nodded, thinking with narrowed eyes. "Good."

As she crossed her arms around her body he watched her sombrely. "Happy New Year."

It had just been a hunch but the fact that she did not complain about being flown to Mystic Falls, spending hours alone with him, and that she thought the decision was a good one proved his suspicion right. The ascendant was in Virginia and she knew where.

"…Armoury. In the lake…grams," she murmured in her sleep. She was curled up on the seat beside him. He was exhausted and had drunk copious amounts of coffee but they were now approaching their destination. He watched her sleep. He had been taking her magic bit by bit for months, transferring it into the duplicate ascendant he had made years ago as a means to remember what the key looked like. He had gradually slowed his intake as she became weaker but the real reason he had held off taking her magic was because it had formed an unforeseen link between them.

She dreamed his dreams, and vice versa, memories and wishes seeping along a cord between them. He had never siphoned someone over such a long period, aside from his twin but even that connection had not produce such consequences. Bonnie was a psychic, a seer and it was that ability even before her affinity with fire that she could readily access.

It had been unfortunate that she learned his crimes through the connection but it was not that which stung the most. He missed the feel of her in his arms, the sound of her whispering his name in a breathless rush in his ear. The adoration and affection, the friendship. It was new and until then something he could take or leave. Relationships had ever only been a means to an end, a swift and subtle manipulation or fleeting fascination on his part until he grew bored and moved on but this was unlike anything. It was verging into an obsession.

He was stalling his eighteen year escape and eventual leadership for her and she was now regarding him with scorn and a restrained rage. He was perversely relishing it. The challenge, the friction rubbing against his resolve was edging on erotic. He had a mission to accomplish, and he would no matter what but god, he wanted this woman and all her restrained hostility and hurt by his side. If he could win her back, if he soothed that betrayal they would be fucking unstoppable together.

But right now she was a volcano harbouring a secret and would burn him alive given the right pressure. He had to be patient but his escape was so close, he could feel it thrumming through his body.

They drove passed Whitmore College, the lawns empty but filled with telescopes in the morning light. Kai watched her peripherally as she eyed the trees concealing the lake. He smiled, humming along to music. They had eaten hastily at the small airport, wanting to reach Mystic Falls before the eclipse.

"Where we first met."

"Did you know I was there?"

"Nope. Honestly, I had no idea. I was there because your grandmother taught at the college but I found nothing. I took a couple of pills, floated on my back watching the eclipse until I fell unconscious and drowned."

"Even though you knew you'd come back?" she stared at him with something like pity.

"I started to think of it like playing the lottery. You play enough you gotta win some time right?" he smiled and shrugged. "I was desperate."

She nodded in understanding and rubbed her face, yawning. "You think the ascendant is in Mystic Falls?"

"No, I think it's in the Armoury," he watched her carefully and was proud at her concealment but he still laughed. "You talk in your sleep Bon. You kept mentioning your grandmother, that place and the lake. You know where it is."

She looked straight ahead, watching the lake disappear. They were only a few miles from her home town. She sat back and turned to him. "How did you know I was at your house?"

Kai raised his eyebrows at the unexpected question. "Oh. I found this," he rummaged in his pocket before bringing out a red choker. "My sister Jo was wearing this that night. I actually gave it to her. Well I stole it. It's seared into my mind, it looked like her throat was slit every time she swallowed." He swung it, making the gold sun attached to it catch the light.

"…I found it. I dreamed of the house while I was wearing it."

"The house and what else?"

"Nothing," she clenched her jaw, avoiding his gaze, and his patience started to thin. He pulled the car suddenly to the side of the road and stopped. He smiled at her, the choker still in his hand.

"I know you're lying. You're psychic and you've been seeing things. My little sister at the bottom of the stairs, a fire and a wedding, right?"

She swallowed at the mention of the wedding. "It was dreams. That…gathering never happened."

"No…but it could," he said it gently, almost hopefully and she bit her lip. "Listen if you don't want to see me again I get it. I'll stay in Portland and never see you. Do you want that?"

Bonnie breathed quickly, frowning as she answered. "Do you?"

"No. You can hate me for the rest of our lives but I won't give up. I'd prefer it if you didn't," he smiled softly and leaned closer and his eyes were ice. "But that won't ever happen if you continue to stall or plan to trap me here. Are you?"

She stared at his hard, calm eyes with a gaze just as strong. "If you plan to kill witches out of revenge then I'll keep you here, even if I have to stay."

"Come on!" Kai shouted, hitting the palm of his hand against the steering wheel with a slapping noise. She jumped but kept her cool. "Are you so fucking cruel? Don't I mean anything to you?" He stared at her with an angry hurt and it was intense but he knew it would pass.

"…I don't know anymore."

"You'd stay here just to punish me? You'd do that to yourself? That's crazy Bonnie. I know you have a habit of self-sacrificing but no one is asking you to. I'm not and never will. What the fuck for? Some people you've never met? You know if they knew you were in here with me they wouldn't care? Just be a little selfish for once," he finished with a small, exasperated laugh and she looked away with a tight smile. She stared at the trees for a long time before speaking.

"If I asked you not to kill anyone, if I begged you, would you respect that? Would you respect me?"

Kai stared at her for a long moment. He had been holding onto the sweet prospect of personally hunting down and killing those responsible for his predicament, it had given him a purpose but the hate had fizzled. He wanted to be a witch, he wanted no one to mock him or abuse him for what he was. Merging would give him full access to magic, not this leaky bucket of an ability he possessed.

Could he respect her wish not to kill? Yes but with an amendment.

"I promise not to kill them with one exception," he leaned closer, holding a finger up. "I'm going to find Josette and we're doing the merge ceremony. One of us will die but it's not up to me. It's not a fight. The powers above and below weigh which one of us is the strongest and that person wins. They absorb their twin's magic, doubling in strength, and the leadership passes from my father to that person. If it's not me and Jo then it's the other set of Gemini twins."

"Liv and Luke?"

"Bingo. This was never their fate and it doesn't have to be. I'd be saving their life."

"How noble," she deadpanned and he groaned.

"Come on Bonnie. This is Gemini tradition and Gemini business. It's messed up but it's got to happen for the survival of the coven."

Bonnie gazed at him and the choker now resting across his lap. "She could win?"

"She could but she won't. Even as a siphoner I'm more powerful. She hated being a witch and the prospect of leading. I don't."

"But you could die?"

He nodded. "Yes. Finally," he joked but grew serious. "I've waited my entire life for this and I thought either way it's cool. I win or I die…but then I met you. I wanna live, I want that chance even if you and my family believe I'm not worth it."

She shook her head. "It's not about what I feel Kai. You did something awful and if you get out...It's about being worthy of your position of power and the people who you'll lead. You and me…that's not important anymore."

"Yes it is. Yes it is. Listen I've done my time, in a way no one should. I've paid and now I get a chance to do things right. I don't know what will happen when I merge but if you want me to prove that I can do this then I will."

"Be a better man?" she asked scornfully and he snorted and shook his head.

"No, I don't even know if that's possible. I mean be a good leader, to witches and siphoners. You can take it or leave it but just know that what happened these few months was real. None of that was a show or a con. I think I really do love you."

That timid, guarded stepping forward to him got slammed back under a shield and she looked away with a stoic expression. Kai cursed himself internally but it was worth a shot. He had no idea if it was love or not but whatever it was it was real to him and that was all that mattered. If she believed him, if she felt even a tiny bit of pity or understanding then it was enough. He could work with the smallest amounts given to him. He would have her. He would have everything he wanted.

They drove towards the Mystic Falls sign when Bonnie told him to turn around and drive back. Maybe it was the prospect of doing another fruitless search for the ascendant when she knew exactly where it was. Maybe it was having it so close that she could not resist. Maybe she knew that if she tried to slip away on her own he would find her and it would end up being a messy cluster fuck. No one had to get hurt. It didn't have to be hard and it seemed to him she was in agreement.

"Are you serious? It was right there the whole fucking time?" Kai asked as she directed him down a narrow dirt road mere minutes from the lake where they had first met. Bonnie lifted her eyebrows.

"Apparently."

She was quiet and avoiding his gaze but the rage she had been holding back seemed to have eased. Now she was calm but distant. Maybe she trusted that he would not hurt her but still smarting at his lies. It was understandable. They stopped before a large field, the woods leading to the lake in the distance. There was nothing else. Bonnie got out and he followed, eyes narrowed against the climbing sun.

"Is it cloaked?" he could feel a very faint hum in the air, so the magic was either very weak or powerfully concealed. He guessed the latter.

Bonnie walked forward a few paces and held out her hand. "It should be right there."

Kai moved to her side and smiled down at her. "I don't have any magic."

She gave him a lidded look before pointing at his pocket. "Guess you'll have to use the fake ascendant, won't you?"

Kai grinned as he took it out but inside he was wondering if she would ever let him near her again. The loss of magic was disappointing but he was used to it. Being denied her, a closeness after being starved of touch, was worse. As a child he often felt jittery and uncomfortable when he was surrounded by magic but unable to take it. He had been desperate, like an addict but as he grew he learned to control it. Now he had to stop himself pulling her into his arms. Having the object of your affection also brimming with magic was a confusing situation.

He thumbed the fake relic and felt magic within it. He had used some of it recently and it was a little weak but enough to do a simple uncloaking. He pulled magic from it, biting back his sigh of relief. He handed the circle of metal to her and held out his hands.

"Phasmatos oculacs."

An old, two story Gothic style building appeared, taking up most of the field. Kai looked at it happily while Bonnie nodded to herself. She watched him as he strode forward, reaching a door and tried to open it. It would not move.

"Motus! Come on!"

"It doesn't work like that," she said behind him and he turned to see her pulling out his pocket knife. When the hell had she got that? He watched her flicking it open and then nicked the fleshy part of her arm. She pressed her hand in the blood and then her palm against the door.

It clicked and swung open.

"Sealed with Bennett blood but cloaked with Gemini magic," Kai assumed aloud, looking up at the building. It was hundreds of years old. He smiled at Bonnie softly. "Our covens have always been allies."

Bonnie looked at him impassively and flicked the knife closed. She entered and with a giddy excitement he followed. Inside large windows shone down on many glass display cases and tables. The magic hit him like a punch as he entered and he had to stop for a moment.

"Do you see it?" she asked, inspecting the cabinets.

"Can you feel that?" he asked in stead, shaking slightly. There was a reservoir of magic under them, pulsing up through his body. Bonnie paused and then closed her eyes before she inhaled.

"Yeah."

"Jesus no wonder my parents never told me about this place. We have an archive but this…there's dark magic here, powerful."

He moved around the displays, looking at the relics with a hungry appreciation. Bonnie searched through the other side of the room, looking at her watch. The eclipse was soon.

Kai stared at a crown made of opals and hummed. "I noticed you're not wearing the necklace I gave you."

"Not really my style," she answered distractedly and he smiled.

"You realise this place belongs to both of us? There are Gemini symbols all over the walls."

"But it's in my back yard."

"We'll share," he said and turned. His smile dropped at once. Bonnie was holding a circuit of metal but unlike the one he had made this one was smaller. It was half way into her pocket. He stalked over quickly, Bonnie backing up until she hit the display cabinet she had opened.

"I just found it."

"Uh huh. It's not like you have any magic and were thinking of going without me, right?" he asked pleasantly and held out his hand. Bonnie looked up as the room grew dark. The eclipse.

"Don't you trust me?" she asked and her disdain was a visible thing. She smiled thinly and then placed the real ascendant in his palm. Two things happened at once. The eclipse started and the ascendant suddenly shattered as it made contact with his skin.

They watched in shock as cracked pieces of the ascendant scattered to the floor. Kai's eyes grew wide and white hot rage flooded him. Body stiff with outrage he balled his fists and screamed at the floor and then snapped his eyes up as Bonnie shifted.

"What. Did. You. Do?" he demanded, breathing heavily and moved until he was pressed against her. The metal clinked under his foot.

"Nothing. Get off me!" she yelled and pushed him away but his attention was drawn to the ascendant. He dropped to a knee and reached for a large piece of metal. It moved away from his fingers like it had been repelled. He tried again, making a grab but the pieces slid away.

"What the fuck!" he looked up, knowing that they had about four more minutes of the eclipse left. Bonnie, seemingly frozen with shock, got on her knees to try to help. She picked up a piece and they both frowned.

"I think – I think it was enchanted to destroy itself if you touched it. Like the paper at my gram's house."

"Fuck that! Make it work!" he yelled and she glared at him.

"Calm down and let me concentrate," she said and Kai inhaled a deep breath and held it, counting to five in his head. Fuck he was seconds from losing it. He was boiling with the injustice of it. That his family would give him a way out, hope, only for it to fall to pieces at his touch. But it was not a cruelty, was it?

"…It was never made for me," he said quietly as she quickly pieced the ascendant together like a puzzle. Her bloody hands shook.

"What?"

"Gemini and Bennett. You can touch it but I can't," he thought back to the day of his imprisonment, his father in the woods with the ascendant in his bloody hand. Kai had assumed that it had been his blood but maybe he had got it wrong.

"I think that's it," Bonnie said in a shaken voice and looked at her watch. Two minute.

"Okay, okay," Kai inhaled again and then began to recite the spell to get out. After Bonnie found the scrap of paper he had learned it off by heart. The relic in her hands did nothing and for an agonising moment they both thought it was broken but then the wheels and cogs started to move.

"Yes, yes, keep going," he murmured at Bonnie took up the chant, her eyes closed and he had no idea whose magic was being used to power it. He had been unknowingly soaking up the power around him, it was overwhelming but it was nothing to what he was feeling. He was going home.

White light beamed down around them and they both gasped, staring at each other. Her eyes where a dazzling jade green in the light and unable to help himself he pulled her to him, siphoning indiscriminately. The light yanked them upwards as Bonnie screamed in pain and then the light was gone and she was panting against his chest. Kai kept his eyes closed, saying a farewell to 1994 and opening them to 2013.

"Did it work?" she asked, leaning off him. The cracked ascendant was gone. Kai looked upwards.

He opened his mouth to answer, to give an affirmation. He even imagined kissing her and her kissing him back in the relief but none of those things happened. Bonnie looked at the window and shook her head.

"No…No, that's not right," she stood up, shaking but Kai was still staring at the eclipse. The moon moved away from the sun and light shone back into the room. Bonnie cradled her head. "It didn't work? I don't understand," she looked at her bloody hands, shaking her head. "The ascendant is gone."

Kai said nothing, just felt an old but familiar redness settling around him. It was ice cold and it was the only thing holding him back from decimating everything he saw. He got to his feet and stared at Bonnie and she blinked and moved back. It was the first time she had looked scared.

"If you've done this to me…" his voice was emotionless.

"I didn't. Maybe it was the wrong ascendant? Look, there's others in that cabinet," she pointed but Kai shook his head. They had used the right one, he knew it.

"Did you grandmother send you here to fuck with me?" he asked. A part of him knew he was being irrational but he was too far gone to care.

"Don't come any closer," she warned, finger pointing at him and he smirked.

"Oh Bonnie I'm never gonna let you go ever again."

Her eyes widened and she suddenly picked up a huge vase and flung it at him. Kai dodged it but it shattered against a cabinet and a piece of it cut his cheek. Bonnie used that time to escape and by the time Kai looked up she was gone.

Had she started to trust him? Had she been that foolish and soft? The promises and declarations were burning away under the look of utter emptiness in his gaze. Bonnie ran through the grass, towards the treeline and she tried to breathe but her heart and lungs were pounding. He had the car keys. She could burst with what was inside her, she could burn everything down.

She reached the shade of the treeline and looked back. Kai was running after her, shouting out her name and she ran faster, jumping over logs and picnic baskets. She got near to the lake, buffeting a group of children in her haste, and it was only when she burst free from the trees did she stop and spin around.

"…What?"

"Wasn't the eclipse great?" a young woman asked her, standing beside a telescope. Around her more people stood, a few wearing Whitmore tees. Bonnie blinked, looking around the lake. There had to be hundreds of people there, eating and drinking, gathered to watch the eclipse.

"What – what year is it?"

The college students frowned but the woman with the telescope answered. "1994. May 10th 1994."

a.n:

Boom. On the show the 1994 ascendant cracked and was broken and I wondered if that would mess it up in some way...

So sorry for the long wait, I was struggling with this chapter. I hope you like it!