The last house was again isolated with a dark theme but it was certainly no grand manor, it wasn't a small house but definitely not a large one. It was also the most unkempt, despite the stubby stone wall surrounding it he could already see overgrown weeds poking through the gaps in the fence. As they approached the house, Scorpius saw the garden was indeed rife with weeds and wild flowers – he wasn't entirely sure of the difference – though some were barely visible amongst the seemingly knee high grass, it was rather contrasting against the home which was certainly no country cottage.

Scorpius looked at Sebastian, he didn't seem either nor formal and stood casually as he eyed the door curiously before knocking. They waited a minute but there was no response, despite the fact Scorpius thought he could faintly hear sniffling coming from further inside. Thinking he just might not have heard Sebastian's knock – the boy was quite small – Scorpius knocked himself, much louder than Sebastian had.

Silence.

"Grandfather? Grandfather, are you th-" Sebastian started to call out but stopped as there was a loud thud from inside the house, the sound of wood smacking against floorboard. He glanced at Scorpius worriedly, "Do you think he's ok-"

"Stay behind me," Scorpius hissed at him, having already withdrawn his wand and cast Alohomora to get the door open. His first thought was the Shadows though he wasn't sure why they'd be after Sebastian's grandfather, maybe it was just common thieves or something?

At any rate, he pushed himself into the house warily with his wand brandished to deal with any threats and had to blink a few times to adjust to the gloom. Inside was much darker – the shutters all seemed drawn – but also neat, evidently the house-elf still took care of the inside as it looked so immaculate it barely looked lived in, let alone disturbed by intruders. Scorpius moved further in past the front room as a Homenum Revelio revealed it empty, he thought he heard someone choking as he made his way to the next room which was also locked. They had to be in there. Scorpius unlocked it nonverbally and kicked open the door, wand raised to hopefully take the intruders by surprise but he was the one taken by surprise at what he saw.

There was only one person there and he was hanging from the chandelier, his face started to go blue from the rope choking the life from him. A chair had been kicked out beneath him which had probably been the sound they'd heard, it was a dining room but the table and other chairs had been moved aside to grant access to the chandelier. Scorpius heard a shocked gasp from behind him as he cast a non-verbal Diffindo at the rope, cutting it down so the man fell awkwardly – and probably painfully – back to the ground on the chair, gasping as air flooded back into his lungs.

"Grandfather!" Sebastian cried out as he ran to the man, moving the chair out of the way and putting a hand on his shoulder, "Grandfather, are you okay?!"

Scorpius exchanged an awkward glance with Lamb who'd come up to stand beside him, he wasn't sure what to do in this situation and Lamb looked just about as clueless. He didn't think he would need healing, he hoped not because he didn't know any and wasn't even sure where to take him if he did. His skin was losing the unhealthy hue though, Sebastian was still looking incredibly distressed and on the verge of tears.

"Grandfather…" Sebastian whimpered as his lip quivered, seeming as unsure what to say as the rest of them as the man – Abel, according to Hermine's notes – opened his mouth to try saying what Scorpius would've expected to be some kind of reassurance for Sebastian but once more he was proven spectacularly wrong.

"What did you go and do that for?!" Abel shrieked at Scorpius accusingly, his voice cracking and tears seeped from his slate gray eyes, "Do you know how long I had to pretend to be okay for that bloody house-elf to leave me alone this time?! Do you have any idea how hard that is?! Why would you do this to me?! What did I ever do to you?!"

"What was I supposed to do?! Let you die?!" Scorpius insisted incredulously.

"Yes!" Abel cried adamantly before burying his face in his hands and sobbing broken, Scorpius sighed and cast another Severing Charm to get the noose off him completely.

"Grandfather…" Sebastian said again, still looking very distressed and tried to rub his grandfather's shaking shoulder in a soothing way, "It… It's okay…"

Scorpius watched them awkwardly, inexplicably remembering he also needed to tell this guy about his son's death. He suddenly found himself wishing he'd brought Leebin along, aside from committing him to St Mungo's he wasn't even sure what other options wizards had. These things weren't talked of, especially in pureblood society. His gaze shifted around unsurely, at a loss of how to handle the situation and wasn't helped by Lamb who was moving the severed rope away from Abel and fixing the chair. The only other furniture in the dining room and was a cabinet very close to them, there was an odd assortment of photographs on. It was odd because they were overly cluttered, there was far too many of them for the space there and they were all angled specifically towards Abel instead naturally facing out to the room like normal photographs.

He found himself having to do a double take however as for a second he thought Varanian was in one of the pictures, as he moved closer he saw he was mistaken as a teenaged Abel was also in the picture dating it as too old for Varanian. Aside from the fact many Selwyns seemed to have the same tall but lanky frame as Varanian, this man had mismatched eyes and despite his hair being jet black hair, it had the same short scruffy texture as Varanian and the cocky smirk he wore was eerily similar, or maybe he was just misremembering because he hadn't Varanian smile in a while. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties in this one, Scorpius identified the man in a few more where he was younger but there were none where he was older.

All the pictures seemed to be of Abel's family, he recognized younger images of Sebastian and his murderous sister Lauren, Eleazar and the toddler, even much younger pictures of the Shadow Selwyn. There were others he didn't recognize but from family resemblance and age, he could at least guess how they connected to Abel- he thought the man he'd mistaken for Varanian was likely an elder brother for instance. He wasn't sure whether it disturbed him more or less to think Abel had attempted suicide surrounded by pictures of his family, many of whom Scorpius knew still lived.

"Sebastian?" Abel's surprised voice exclaimed and Scorpius turned back to them, he seemed to have calmed down enough to notice his grandchild, "You're alive?"

"Um… yeah?" Sebastian confirmed awkwardly and Abel looked confused.

"I heard Hogwarts fell?"

"It did, I just… got out."

"Oh, well that's good," Abel commented and put his arm around Sebastian, his expression was clouding over with misery once more though, "Not that it matters, my boy, the world is ending. We're all going to die anyway."

"H- Hey, y- you don't know that!" Lamb spoke up defensively, "Gr- Gray is g- g- going to win."

"Gray has put up a good fight but I don't think even Philip can stop a woman who can destroy cities with a snap of her fingers."

"I don't think it's quite that fast," Sebastian muttered but Scorpius had been taken aback by something else.

"I'm sorry, did you just call Varanian 'Philip?'" Scorpius wondered incredulously and Abel looked suddenly angry.

"It's his name!" Abel insisted with acrid words, glaring daggers as his lips took a malicious sneer reminiscent of his Shadow son. When combined with his tearstained face and red rimmed eyes, he looked quite mad, "I refuse to call him by the other one those murderers gave him, Varanians are murderers. They murdered my brother, they framed him and they murdered him and they covered it up. It was all lies and they knew it! They-"

"It's just that he prefers 'Pip,'" Scorpius decided to cut off the increasingly insane sounding rant, Abel ogled him with sudden interest, "I've never known anyone refer to him by his full name."

"Really?" Abel wondered, seeming oddly pleased by this before surprise seemed to slap him in the face again, "Wait, you actually know him?"

"Yeah, they're from Gray," Sebastian provided for him.

"Really?" Abel reiterated more excitedly before his fall in confusion again then suddenly turn to terror, "Wait, why are Gray here?"

"Th-"

"I'm not a Shadow!" Abel shrieked in panic, looking close to crying again, "I'm not! I don't know anything, I have nothing to do with those lunatics-"

"I believe you!" Scorpius cut him off, truthfully too as Abel did not strike him as Shadow material. The old man relaxed a little, twitching a little fearfully though, "We're not here for that."

"Well good because I'm not. Contrary to what the Ministry seem determined to believe, most purebloods aren't even supportive of the Shadow Master the same way they were of her father. I don't know anything- I don't even have a wand! I'm completely worthless, what would I even do-"

"You don't have a wand?"

"They took it off me, thought I might hurt myself," Abel stated with a dismissively vague gesture, Scorpius could only assume he meant his family which admittedly made sense if he was suicidal. He scowled in confusion, "But if you're not here to torture me then why are you here? What could you possibly want from me of all people? I'm nothing."

"We're here to see if you're interested in taking Sebastian in," Scorpius asked, deciding to start with that and Abel immediately looked to his grandson.

"Sebastian, you know your great-grandparents won't allow that."

"You're… You're an adult!" Scorpius spluttered out incredulously, the man had to be in his mid to late sixties despite the stubborn black still mixed into his thick mop of scruffy gray hair, "You're a father- you're a grandfather, why do you care what your parents say!?"

"I don't know how it is for you Malfoys but look around you," Abel told him, gesturing to their surroundings, "You see this house? And all of this furniture? And all of these decorations?"

"What about them?!"

"None of it is mine! It all belongs to my parents, I don't even own the clothes on my back," Abel pointed out, plucking at his dark satin robe and making Scorpius notice he had marks on his neck from the rope… Scorpius didn't know how to heal them, "The patriarch controls all the family wealth, everyone else does what they say or you get cut off and thrown onto the street with nothing. Undesirable family members are not even to be spoken of, let alone contacted and certainly not taken into their property. Werewolves are naturally not considered desirable family members, I'm sorry Sebastian."

"S- Seems a pr- pretty l- lousy system," Lamb pointed out.

"I didn't invent it!" Abel snapped defensively, throwing a dark look at Lamb, "Nor did I say I like it but its how things are, if you hadn't noticed life is comprised entirely out of these intricately twisted systems designed to screw you over. So if that's all, feel free to leave me now."

"We can't leave you alone right now!" Sebastian protested flabbergasted and gave Scorpius a desperately pleading look as if scared he would really leave the suicidal man alone, just because his son was an evil bastard it didn't mean he had issues with Abel. He had the strange urge to check on Latimer though.

"Of course we won't," Scorpius confirmed, much to the young werewolf's relief while Abel gave a wail of despair and buried his face in his hands again, "Didn't you say something about a house-elf? We'll wait until they get back... We're also supposed to inform you of your son's death."

"Which one?" Abel demanded, his head shooting back up anxiously.

"Erm… How many do you have?" Scorpius wondered as he tried to recall what the Shadow's first name was because 'Selwyn' wasn't going to narrow it down.

"Two sons- three if you count the illegitimate one- and two daughters."

"The one who was a Shadow… Maverick?" Scorpius half-told him and half-asked as he was unsure on the name.

"Ah."

"You don't seem very upset?" Scorpius prompted, wondering if he'd gotten the first name wrong.

"I mourned for Maverick a long time ago," Abel shrugged sadly, gazing off pensively at nothing, "Running around with the Death Eaters and the Shadows… you know it's only a matter of time. It was all my fault anyway, he was so angry about the divorce – he and your mother both actually, Sebastian, I think the other two were too young to understand though – and then their mother went and died which made it even worse… I hope his death wasn't too painful."

"Err…"

"Don't tell me how he died!" Abel shrieked, actually putting his hands over his ears childishly and squeezing his eyes shut – as if that would help – though tears seeped through the cracks, "I don't want to know…"

"We won't," Sebastian reassured him, patting his grandfather's arm awkwardly again and looking rather desperate to sooth him somehow, "I love you, Grandfather."

"If you loved me then you'd let me die!" Abel snapped at him angrily through his tears, making the boy look extremely hurt but Abel seemed oblivious to this as he just broke down crying again. Scorpius sighed inwardly, feeling at a loss. He didn't think it was good for Sebastian to be around his grandfather right now but tearing him away seemed bad too, it also wasn't like he was willing to leave Abel alone until his house-elf guardian returned, "You shouldn't even be here, this is trespassing-"

"Somehow I don't think the Ministry would mind," Scorpius muttered bitterly, realizing also he was unlikely to get to his own family today too if they were babysitting Abel.

"Of course they wouldn't, they hate purebloods! They'd just lock me up in the permanent ward in St Mungo's, or wherever they lock people up now that it's destroyed…" Abel sniffed, seeming to be trying to calm down as he rocked backwards and forwards a little, "I'm fine… I'm fine…"

Flannery Leebin apparated them both to the forest clearing, half-surprised and almost impressed he didn't splinch himself considering he was barely focused on the half-remembered location as it was. He shivered slightly as the cool evening breeze brushed his cheek but the temperature drop was welcome, he'd rather feel cold then continue to feel the heat from the flames consuming his family's corpses.

His insides lurched at that thought, his legs trembled unsteadily and might've buckled if not for Oathan. The young child's hand was clasped within his own and served as a small yet strong anchor to keep him focused, keep him together when all he wanted to do was break down. The kid needed him. With Molly's death, he was the only person who could take care of him and it was important he was taken care of as he was the last hope and blah blah blah. Flan knew all that but the paternal instinct compelling him to care for the feeble child was a better driver right now.

He led Oathan around the clearing, listening carefully for any signs of Shadows or danger and peering through the thick tree trunks for the same. He wasn't going to be able to put up enchantments and he daren't leave Oathan alone right now so this was the best he could do, or maybe just the best his fried brain could manage right now. At any rate, he was met with still silence all around.

They needed to get out of the country but he didn't think Oathan was up to that right now, he wasn't even sure he was up to that right now. The torrent of grief was doing a good job insulating him from the fatigue he felt and ever-present aches he had to push himself through but he knew rest would be good for him too, as long as that same torrent allowed him to.

He led Oathan to the middle of the clearing where a felled tree made for a good bench, he seated them both down on it and swung the – thankfully weightless – bag of supplies off his back which was also magically expanded inside. There were sleeping bags he should get out but he decided he would see how Oathan was first, the boy had been very quiet.

"How are you doing?" Flan asked of his charge gently, touching his arm and drawing the boy's violet eyes to him.

"I'm okay," Oathan answered quietly and too quickly for it to be true, he fidgeted a little awkwardly as if struggling to think of what to say, "Are… Are you? I mean, I um… I'm really sorry, about your family."

"Oh," Flan uttered, feeling as if he'd been kicked in the stomach while images of their lifeless faces tried to seep behind his eyelids but he quickly composed himself and at least attempted a grateful smile. After all, empathy was certainly a trait he wanted to encourage, even if any reminder was extremely painful right now, "Thank you, Oathan. It hurts a lot but I'm doing alright, we just have to keep going, it's what th- they would want."

"Okay," Oathan nodded and Flan tried to swallow the lump in his throat that had cracked his voice, he wasn't sure if it was tears or tiredness that was stinging his eyes more, "That's what I always think my dad would want."

"I'm sure he would," Flan agreed encouragingly, "So are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm tired," Oathan admitted a little reluctantly, looking a little guilty, "Really tired. I know I should feel more sad or worried but I just feel tired. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for how you feel, Oathan, feelings can't be right or wrong and everyone deals with things differently so if you just feel tired then that's okay," Flan assured him and dug into the pack to get the sleeping bags, though he thought he'd stay watch for a little while before sleeping himself which he realized would've been so much easier if Molly or his family had survived. Morbidly he wondered whether his family had even had a chance or if she'd just implied they had to spare his feelings, he supposed he could never ask her now, "I have some sleeping bags here, there's also a tent I think but I'm not going to bother with that right now. Once we rest we'll need to get moving quickly, got to get of the country."

"Okay," Oathan nodded again as Flan handed him the first sleeping bag he came across, something about the way he held himself gave Flan the sense he still had more to say.

"Is sleep all you need? There's some food and water in here if you need it, there's also some potions if you don't feel good," Flan pressed while he still had the bag open, he saw Oathan's eyes shift at the last one, "Is your heart hurting?"

"Only a little," Oathan told him with a sigh, rubbing at his chest unhappily and Flan withdrew one of the potions to hand to him.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of," Flan reassured him as he handed over the small vial, Oathan drank the contents reluctantly, "You've just got to give yourself time to heal."

"I guess so."

"I know so."

They ended up babysitting Abel all afternoon as he'd given his house-elf the whole afternoon off - the house-elf seemed rather angry to learn of the suicide attempt upon her return - Scorpius wasn't sure whether it was just because Abel was unstable but he struck him as being unused to company. They managed to calm him enough to coax him to the table for some tea, mostly trying to distract him from his depressive bursts because… well, he had no idea what else to do.

Abel had some interest in hearing Sebastian talk about his time in Hogwarts – Sebastian tactfully choosing to focus on the more mundane aspects – and a fascination with Gray, in particular a bizarre interest in Varanian, so Scorpius had the difficult task of trying to speak about them without actually saying much about them and he wasn't sure whether Abel's short attention span hindered or helped with this. At any rate, Scorpius was very glad when he could finally leave Abel in the house-elf's care. Unfortunately it was far too late to see his own family, seeing Abel's poor condition actually just made him want to see them even more.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Sebastian asked worriedly after Lamb apparated them back to the Embry's.

"I don't know," Scorpius had to admit, not sure whether he should've lied just then, "Is he normally like that?"

"I don't know, usually he's sad but I've never seen him… I didn't know he wanted to die," Sebastian answered, changing his sentence mid-way through and looking extremely upset again, "Why would he do that? I can't believe some of the things he said, what he did… I don't understand."

"D- Don't take what h- he said too se- seriously," Lamb offered gently as Gail Embry let them into the house, "H- He's cl- clearly v- very upset, not thinking straight and probably d- doesn't mean it."

"You think?" Sebastian wondered, moving back into the infirmary room with Lamb while Scorpius went to go find Hermione and ran into her on way down the stairs.

"Oh hey Scorpius, you were gone longer then I thought," Hermione greeted him in surprise and Scorpius started walking with her, "How did it go?"

"They all said no as you suspected," Scorpius admitted and hesitated, for a second recalling Abel's fearful crying of being locked up if the Ministry found out and wondering whether he should even tell Hermione but ultimately shoved those thoughts aside. Whatever Hermione would do couldn't be worse then his current situation, surely, "There was something off with Abel though, Sebastian's grandfather."

"Let me guess, he reminded you of Varanian?"

"What?" Scorpius wondered, taken aback by both the question itself and the fact she'd thought to ask it, "A little but there were some pictures of this man - who I think was Abel's brother – who reminded me even more so, how did you know that?"

"Because…" Hermione began and looked around as if to make sure they were alone before continuing, pulling him into an empty bedroom and flicking her wand with a quick Silencing Charm for good measure, "Varanian was adopted by his maternal grandparents, his biological father was Cain Selwyn who was indeed Abel's older brother."

"Wh- Really?" Scorpius spluttered out in shock, though he supposed it would explain a few things. It also raised a few more questions though, "Abel said his brother was murdered…"

"He was. Cain was a Death Eater, when he attacked his pregnant fiancée – a highly trained and uncommonly skilled Auror - she killed him in self-defense."

"I don't think Abel sees it that way."

"Well considering what happened afterwards, I suppose he could be right," Hermione shrugged and must've noticed the question burning Scorpius' tongue as she elaborated before he could ask, "A few years after that his mother, Hilda Varanian, had a mental breakdown. She was delusional and thought everyone was a Death Eater, killed two dozen innocent people before her grandfather put her down."

"Wow."

"Yes, and now you know why the Ministry was so skeptical of his sanity and stability."

"Bad blood…" Scorpius reiterated, recalling his grandfather – or great-grandfather, he supposed - ranting about it in Varanian's memories. No wonder Enoch was so paranoid about him turning evil, "There's bad blood in his veins."

"You could put it like that."

"He doesn't even know about this though," Scorpius realized, scowling at the unfairness of them judging him for something he wasn't even aware of.

"After having interacted with him, no, I don't believe he does."

"It would devastate him," Scorpius said, more to himself then to her. Considering he was suspecting Varanian's blood had something to do with unlocking Savas' secrets, this was particularly problematic, "He thinks his family are all heroic Aurors."

"He doesn't have to know, I certainly won't – and legally shouldn't – tell him," Hermione pointed out, flicking her wand again to get rid of the charm and going to leave, "I'll get Voltur's address for you soon, got busy today planning thing for the next alliance meeting."

"Wait!" Scorpius blurted out, "I didn't even tell you what I was going to say about Abel!"

"Oh, the Varanian thing wasn't it?" Hermione wondered as the closed the door, "I guess I jumped the gun a bit. What was up with Abel then?"

"We found him attempting suicide," Scorpius informed her and a look of mild surprise took her, "That's why we stayed so long until his house-elf got back from an afternoon off, we didn't think we should leave him alone. I don't… I'm not sure how these things are dealt with, I thought maybe you'd know."

"Well normally he'd be committed to St Mungo's."

"He was kind of afraid of that."

"I'll inform the appropriate authorities," Hermione told him thoughtfully, opening the door once more, "We're working so closely with muggles now that he might be able to get real and actually useful psychological help."

"Thank you," Scorpius offered though he wasn't sure if muggles would be helpful to a Selwyn, she gave him a nod of acknowledgement before leaving him alone.

He wandered back downstairs, still half in thought until he passed by Michael who gave him a cold look. They may not be on good terms but it did prompt him to go check on the friends he was on good terms with in the other room, it wasn't like he'd have time to visit his own family today. Albus was in good spirits and started excitedly telling him about how he'd been allowed to eat ice cream today before he was interrupted by an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

"He's waking up!" Cassia's voice cut through Albus' voice, it was the closet he'd heard her to her usual self since losing her father he realized.

The collective group – Albus, Abby, Sebastian and Scorpius - turned to join her in looking at the young Ashain and Scorpius actually moved away from Albus to be at Antonius' side, sure enough the boy was stirring. Antonius groaned as his eyes fluttered open carefully, he still looked half-asleep as the dark chestnut orbs swiveled around him. Finally, a fragile smile curled up the corners of his lips. Hope the dog – who was lying on the end of the bed - started wagging her tail enthusiastically.

"Hey Anton, how you doing?" Scorpius asked him gently as he tried to pull himself into a more upright position.

"Take it easy," Cassia urged her brother.

"I- I'm okay," Antonius told him a little shakily and looked relieved as he looked to his leg, "I was scared I'd wake up with no leg."

"As if we'd let that happen."

Cassia didn't telling twice, she hurried through the hollowed out cave walls and burst through the doors to the infirmary. It was a large room lined with beds for the injured – or sick – and had cabinets of their supply of healing potions on the other side, her shadowed dark chestnut eyes skimmed over the beds quickly. A few on the far right were occupied with fresh inhabitants but the left was where she spotted her charge, a handful of their healers pouring over him.

"Att!" she called as she crossed the distance between them to come to her child's side.

"Mom?" Atticus wondered, the ten year old gazing up at her half confused with identically shadowed dark chestnut eyes to her own before grimacing at some pain that likely had nothing to do with her, he was looking more pallid than usual, "Mom, I'm sorry. There was another ambush and Sally was using Stunners instead of killing again, I didn't notice one reviving his buddy until it was too late and he got me in the leg-"

"Don't worry about that, Att," Cassia urged him gently, brushing a strand of extremely dark auburn hair from his face though in texture it was a wild mop like hers rather than neat and straight like his namesakes, "It's not your fault, I had warned her about that. Fucking Sally."

"Sally died," one of the healers pointed out to which she threw her arms up in frustration, somehow even more annoyed by this.

"Fucking Sally!"

"We still managed to get away with some supplies," Atticus provided weakly, grimacing in pain once again. She wished he hadn't inherited her allergy to the main ingredient in pain-killing potions, "It wasn't a total waste."

"Cassia, a word," the lead Healer urged her and she gave her son a kiss on the forehead, expecting him to give her the rundown on the casualties.

"I'll be right back," Cassia assured her son as she tore herself from him to go speak to Siberius a few feet away, folding her arms as she did so and wishing she had a cigarette, "What?"

"It was a Dark Curse that hit his leg-"

"No shit," Cassia couldn't help but utter at the obvious statement, Siberius ignored this. He was a good guy.

"Bottom line is it destroyed a lot of muscles in his leg, we got rid of the curse but we can't fix the damage it caused," Siberius explained in a hushed tone and Cassia suddenly had a chilling feeling she knew where this was going, "We have two choices, we can leave it as is where he won't be able to use the leg properly and will need a cane just to walk or we can amputate it and he'll need a prosthetic but will be able to regain full mobility with tha-"

"Take the leg," Cassia told him grimly but without hesitation, causing his eyes to widen a little in surprise. He'd probably expected a little more resistance but she'd learned her lesson with her brother, rest his soul.

"Okay," Siberius muttered with a nod as he recovered from this shock, "It's going to hurt a lot, so much so he might pass out from the pain. We're still out of anesthetic, you see, so… you don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"I'm not leaving my son," Cassia insisted stubbornly, scowling at the thought of leaving him to endure this alone, "Don't give a warning, just do it. Don't give him time to be afraid."

"As you wish."

"Hey Att…" Cassia greeted him gently as she moved back over to him, he was looking concerned though.

"What… What was that about?" Atticus asked anxiously, trying to peer around her to where the Healers were preparing his leg, "What are they doing?"

"Don't worry about that, just look at me," Cassia urged him and took his hand, his eyes drifted back to their mirror as he started to breathe faster, "Just look at me, Att, its okay."

"But what are they going to do?" Atticus pleaded fearfully, trying to look back at them again before she started caressing his cheek.

"I told you don't worry about them," Cassia reiterated reassuringly and succeeded in capturing his attention once more, his breathing reigning in somewhat as she kept stroking his face soothingly, "Just look at me, Att, just keep looking at me…"

She couldn't see or hear Siberius do the spell but she could tell the exact moment he did from her son's reaction. His body arched and a scream ripped every breath from his body, he squeezed her hand so tight… His head fell back on the pillow, tears streaming from his eyes as they closed and his grip on her hand went lax.

"It's for the best, Att, I swear," Cassia told his unconscious form sadly, "You'll thank me someday."