AN: I really don't even know how to start this author's note so I'm just starting it by telling you that I don't know how to start it.

Reading everyone's reactions to the previous chapter was the best thing I've experienced in along while. I love your reviews and you always manage to make me smile. I can't thank you all enough. You guys give me so much inspiration and joy, words can't describe.

So the next couple chapters will be on the shorter side. It can't be helped. Unfortunately that is the nature of the beast. I hope you can forgive me! There will absolutely be an update Friday morning (and OMFG the new episode also on Friday, you guys! Can you even!?) so I will see you bright and early on Friday with a fresh new chapter!

Anyhow, please enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think!

Cedric groaned as he felt something cold pressed against his forehead. He opened his eyes slowly to the dim light of a single candle to see Sofia staring down at him. Relief washed over him and he cast her a wide smile. "You're safe."

"Yes, I am." Sofia replied softly. "Thanks to you."

"How long have I been out?" Cedric mumbled.

"One week." Sofia answered, running the cool rag in her hand across Cedric's forehead once more before trailing it down the side of his face. "How do you feel?"

"Like I bludgeoned someone to death." Cedric replied with a chuckle. "And like I could sleep for a thousand more weeks."

Sofia offered Cedric a small smile and wiped the other side of his face with the cool rag. "Good. You should get as much rest as you need."

"I can't be expected to get decent rest without my beautiful wife in my arms." Cedric said but as he made a motion to reach for the woman he realized that his hands were bound above his head. "Wh- S-Sofia!"

"I'm sorry, Cedric." Sofia said quietly. "It would've been foolish of me not to."

Cedric scowled and did his best to wriggle from the restraints but to no avail. It was then that he noticed his feet were similarly bound. "A bit overzealous, don't you think?"

"You broke through a bedpost six inches in diameter." Sofia retorted.

"To protect you!" Cedric shouted. "To save you! And this is the thanks I get!?"

"The alternative was letting the royal guard hang you for treason." Sofia said quietly. "Which was everyone else's immediate suggestion. Baileywick practically had the gallows prepped and ready as soon as he entered the castle courtyard."

"You've taken the castle back." Cedric sighed and lulled his head to the side.

Sofia looked Cedric over calmly and sat the cool rag aside. "What did you expect to happen, Cedric? Honestly?"

"I had hoped that..." Cedric kept his gaze averted from his wife, his brow crinkling. "I suppose a part of me thought that once we reclaimed the castle we would continue to rule as king and queen."

"But you're not the rightful king, Cedric." Sofia replied. "And I'm not the rightful queen. And you and I can't... th-things between us are different now."

Cedric snapped his gaze back to Sofia and shook his head. "Things are not different. Whether I'm king or prisoner I still feel the same about you."

Sofia turned her gaze away from her husband and wrapped her arms around herself. "Please don't say that."

"Why? Because it's too painful to hear?" Cedric retorted. "It's also the truth. I love you, Sofia."

"Cedric, please." Sofia shook her head and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. "This is already hard enough. Don't make it any harder on me."

"Oh, you can be damn sure I'm going to make it hard on you, Sofia. You're my wife! I love you! I'm not going to just let you discard me in some cell like... like... l-like I did to you..." Cedric trailed off and looked away from his wife in shame. "Though I suppose that's exactly what I deserve."

"I'm not an eye for an eye type of person. I think you know that." Sofia said, inching closer to him. "But I don't know what else to do. I don't want you dead but I can't just let you go. I feel that I have no other options."

"Why don't we leave together?" Cedric said hopefully. "We could start a life somewhere else, far away from here. That's what you said you wanted back when we were in that woman's barn. We could still have that. A-all of us. Your family too."

Sofia shook her head and let out a huff of disbelief. "Cedric, it's too late for that. You had your chance back then and you chose the throne."

"That was a mistake, Sofia." Cedric said sadly. "I should've chosen you."

"But you didn't." Sofia replied. "So here we are."

"Are you just going to rule alone as Regent, then?" Cedric asked, looking his wife over in concern. "Or will you remarry?"

Sofia sighed, knowing that her plans for the throne were none of Cedric's business at this point, though she couldn't help but answer his worrisome queries. "I have every magic user in the kingdom looking for a way to reverse what happened to my family. It's only a matter of time before they're successful. Dad will be able to reclaim his rightful place on the throne and I'll be able to move onto other, more important things."

"More important than ruling over an entire kingdom?" Cedric asked skeptically.

Sofia cast her eyes downward and let a small smile come to her lips. "There are some things that are far more important than ruling over an entire kingdom, Cedric, even one as grand as Enchancia."

Cedric watched his wife curiously, something about her demeanor striking him as odd. Despite this uncomfortable situation between them she seemed to be in high spirits, though he chalked that up to being little more than the fact that she had bested him.

He looked away from her, his thoughts drifting to what his life might be like in a prison cell. "Will you come to see me when I'm locked away?"

"I think I'll have to." Sofia said with a shrug. "There's no one else I would trust to bring you your meals."

"As long as you aren't bringing me gruel." Cedric said with a small laugh. "I think I could live with only seeing you three times a day."

"I don't want you to misconstrue things." Sofia replied quietly. "Those visits will be brief, for my sake as well as yours."

"Sofia..." Cedric began to plead but he was silenced by his wife's finger against his lips. He stared up at her, a sorrowful expression on her face as she stood and started away from him. "Sofia!"

"Get some rest while you can." Sofia said softly. "I'll be bringing you something to eat later and preparing you for your transfer to a cell."

Cedric watched in dismay as his wife retreated. He tried calling for her but his shouts fell on deaf ears as she opened the door and exited, closing it and locking it behind her.

Sofia pressed her back against the door and let out a heavy sigh as Cedric's voice calling to her rang in her ears. She did her best to take a few calming breaths and let her head fall against the heavy wooden door until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright, Queen Sofia?" Baileywick asked in concern as he looked the woman over.

Sofia reached up to brush away a tear that had managed to make its way to her face and forced a smile at the castle steward. "I'm fine, Baileywick. I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed. I have a lot I still have to do."

"I wish you would let me take some of the burden off of you." Baileywick offered. "All things considered-"

"You've been through just as much as I have in the past few weeks, Baileywick." Sofia said, casting the man a wink as she bypassed him.

"That is not what I meant and you know it." Baileywick said scoldingly, though he knew the woman was ignoring him. He grumbled under his breath and followed after her as she started off.

Sofia walked through the halls with a purpose in the direction of Cedric's workshop. She made her way up the stairs swiftly and into the workshop where Lily and Lucinda were sifting through all of Cedric's belongings. "Any luck?"

"Nothing." Lucinda replied. "I swear, he's the most meticulous bastard I've ever seen but I can't find anything referencing what spell he may have used on your family, not even in all his notes."

Sofia let out a disappointed sigh. "Do you think it might be here at all?"

Lucinda glanced around the room, feeling that she had only scratched the surface of all the books and scrolls there. "It might be but I seriously doubt it. I'll keep looking though. I've got nothing but time on my hands."

"Thank you, Lucinda." Sofia said with an uneasy smile before turning her attention to Lily. "And what about the box? Did Indigo find anything?"

Lily shook her head in response to the queen. "Unfortunately there didn't seem to be any residue on the inside of the box for any of us to discern what it actually contained. Indigo couldn't pick up anything out of the ordinary. Whatever caused the plume of smoke you described, it left no trace."

"So we have no leads then." Sofia muttered, plopping down on the nearby stool.

"How did things go with your husband?" Lily asked curiously. "Did you dose him with my truth potion?"

"Yes, but I couldn't bring myself to ask him about the amulet or the box." Sofia said with sigh. "I know he'd likely give me the same answer that he gave Abigail about the amulet and I don't want to waste any more time trying to figure out that cryptic clue. And with the box... well, I didn't want to bring up the touchy subject of disturbing Wormwood's shrine so I left that alone too."

"Did you get any useful information at all?" Lucinda asked in slight annoyance.

Sofia shook her head and kept her gaze downward. "No. And even with the potion working on him, he didn't really speak any differently than he normally does so he didn't reveal anything he wouldn't have already. I guess at least I know he's been genuine in his words to me lately, though I'm pretty sure that just makes things worse. It would be easier if he'd just been playing me instead of actually loving me."

"How did he react to the news?" Lily pried.

Sofia sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "He was understandably upset but I think he realizes there will be no changing my mind. He knows what he's done and now he has to pay for it. I think he's accepting his fate."

Lily shook her head and crossed her arms. "You know that's not the news that I meant."

"I..." Sofia averted her gaze from everyone in the room and clasped her hands together. "I didn't tell him."

"Don't you think he's going to notice eventually?" Lucinda interjected. "Unless you want to do something about it. I know a potion that will take care of the problem."

"It's not a problem. It's a second chance, I think." Sofia whispered. "I just can't bring myself to tell him. It would be too hard."

Lily reached out and grabbed Sofia's hand, shaking her head at the woman solemnly. "I know it might be hard but you need to tell him. My father had no idea about me until I showed up on his doorstep after my mother died. I think he resented her so much for not telling him that he eventually began taking it out on me. I'm not saying your husband is like that but... he deserves to know that you're carrying his child."

"He deserves no such thing." Baileywick chimed in, closing the distance between himself and Sofia. "He's already going to try relentlessly to free himself from prison. I imagine it would be tenfold if he knows you're with child. That man deserves the gallows, not a chance to be a father."

Lily watched Sofia's face, seeing how conflicted she appeared. She pulled the queen's hand and gave her a kind smile. "Can we talk privately a moment?"

Baileywick furrowed his brow and crossed his arms over his chest. "Miss Lily, you know you're my favorite witch but-"

"Hey! What am I!?" Lucinda shouted. "Chopped newt?"

"It's fine, Baileywick." Sofia stood from the stool and allowed Lily to pull her out of the room as she led her from the workshop to Cedric's former sleeping quarters. She glanced around the small room in awe. She had only ever seen it once before, out of curiosity when she was a child, but it had somehow seemed so much bigger then. Now it seemed minuscule and hardly fit for the king Cedric fancied himself to be.

The room was plain and simple, with few pieces of furniture and even less character. It lacked any color outside of a few faded trinkets hanging on the wall above his bed; drawings and other things that she had given him. Sorrow overwhelmed her and she found she had to return her eyes to the witch in front of her for fear of crying.

"Sofia, I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't do regarding your baby. I'm sure we all have an opinion on what you should do but quite frankly, it's nobody's business but yours and your husband's. Personally, I think you should tell him but given the circumstances I understand why you might not. Either way, it's not really my business, nor is it Baileywick's or Lucinda's... or anybody else's."

"Thank you, Lily. I think I needed to hear that." Sofia said with a grateful smile.

Lily nodded to the queen and returned her smile. "You should just follow your heart and I'm sure the answer will come to you."

"Follow my heart?" Sofia said with a small snicker. "Honestly, I'm not even sure what that means anymore. Are we talking about the physical heart in my chest or are we talking about the metaphorical one which is so terribly open for interpretation? Because if you mean the latter... I've had about all I can take of that concept."

Lily cocked her head to the side at looked at Sofia in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I've spent weeks now racking my brain over what Cedric could've possibly meant when he told Abigail that the amulet was near to his heart." Sofia said with a sigh. "And I've come up with nothing. He didn't mean his family, he didn't mean Wormwood and Abigail spent enough time digging around in his chest cavity to prove that he didn't mean his actual heart. I'm so tired of thinking over the concept of the heart, I don't think I ever even want to hear that word again."

Lily stared at the queen in slight disbelief before giving her a small smile. "I'm surprised at you, Queen Sofia. You're a fairly intelligent woman but you seem to be ignoring the obvious."

Sofia's brow crinkled and she looked to the witch at a loss. "What do you mean?"

"You said yourself, he actually loves you." Lily said with a shrug. "And you know he does because he said it while under the influence of a potent truth potion. Your husband may be a difficult man to read at times but I don't think it's so difficult to figure out where his heart really lies."

"Y-you mean me?" Sofia muttered, taking a step back. "But I... I don't have the amulet. And Cedric would've never given it to me. It would have been too risky."

"Perhaps it would be risky." Lily agreed. "But perhaps, for him, it would have been far riskier for you to not have the protection it provides."

"Then where is it?" Sofia said with an exasperated sigh.

Lily shrugged again and cast Sofia a small smile. "I can't answer that for you. There's only one person who knows for sure. And with my truth potion still flowing through his veins for at least another hour or so, I'd say now is as good of a time as any to ask."

Sofia blinked down at the ground in thought, a nervous kind of hope rising up in the pit of her stomach at the thought that she could be so close to getting the amulet.

She turned away from Lily quickly and started back through the workshop and out, down the stairs in the direction of the room they were keeping Cedric in. She felt like her feet couldn't carry her fast enough as she ran through the halls back to her husband. She produced a set of keys from a small purse she kept at her side and unlocked the door as soon as she reached it.

For a moment she froze as she saw Cedric turn his eyes to her and her determination fled. The thought that Lily might have been wrong, that she wasn't what Cedric meant when he spoke of his heart, was almost too painful of a thought to bear; nearly as painful as the thought that Lily was right and that she really did mean that much to him after all.

She swallowed hard and approached him apprehensively, stopping just short of the bed to stare down at him. "Cedric, am I your heart?"

Cedric looked up at Sofia with wide eyes. He opened his mouth to say anything but the truth, though that was all that came rolling out. "Of course you are, Sofia. You're... you're everything to me."

"So where is the amulet?" Sofia said firmly despite that she felt her voice trying to fail her. "Is it in my old room? Somewhere else I wouldn't think to look? Where?"

"It's within you." Cedric answered. "It has been ever since the uprising."

Sofia blinked down at Cedric in shock. The amulet had been inside her, all that time. Question after question flooded her mind and she couldn't decide which to ask first so they all came spilling out. "How? A-and why? When did you-"

"After I lost Wormwood I was devastated. King or not, I... I felt like I didn't want to carry on anymore. All those dark feelings I used to have about just ending it all resurfaced again and they were stronger than they'd ever been. I was going to leave this world and the entire mess I'd created behind but I couldn't leave you without some form of protection. You would be all alone in the world and I couldn't leave without insuring your safety. The night I planned to end my life I had the chef slip something into your food to make you sleep. I had many things I wanted to say but I wasn't brave enough to say them to your waking face." Cedric muttered. "I was such a coward..."

Sofia watched over her husband's face and the sorrow there as he trailed off. He had a far off look in his eyes as though he was recalling the painful memory. There was silence between them for a long while before she made an effort to regain his attention. "Cedric?"

"I-I was going to just leave you the amulet and go but as I said my apologies and goodbyes to your sleeping form something struck me. I looked down at you there, still so young and vulnerable, and I realized I couldn't leave you alone in a world like this. I had taken your family and left you with nothing. I reasoned that even if I was all you had, maybe it was still something. So I decided to stay and continue on, if only so that you wouldn't be alone." Cedric returned his gaze to his wife and forced a sad smile. "I still wanted you to have the protection of the amulet, though. I wanted you to have some security just in case anything happened to me; another uprising or perhaps just me losing the internal battle with myself to remain in this world. But I knew I couldn't just give it to you outright so I performed a ritual to place the amulet within your heart so that you would always have its protection no matter what happened."

"So..." Sofia looked down at herself in awe. "So the amulet has been with me this entire time? I-in my heart?"

"Yes, though it did leave a rather charming outline on your back where it sunk through your flesh during the ritual." Cedric said softly. "Do you understand now why I wouldn't tell you the location? I knew you would've given your life to free your family and that's precisely what that witch would've taken from you. There is no magic to remove the amulet. It is forever with you, keeping you protected as it once did when you wore it on your neck. Only now no one can take it from you. Not even me."

"I see." Sofia said, turning away from Cedric slowly. "Cedric, I... I have to go."

Cedric lulled his head to the side in reluctant acceptance and sighed. "I understand. I love you, Sofia."

"I know you do." Sofia replied, pausing to look back at him sorrowfully. "I no longer have any doubts about that, Cedric. Thank you."