Author's Note: Here we go guys, believe it or not we are on the final stretch!

Miranda is Poison

Candy returned home feeling proud of herself. The hardest step to her recovery was over. She had faced the world and rather than being laughed at, the people of Midnight had been welcoming. She felt positive about her life for the first time in a long while.

She let Malingo take the few items she was carrying back to her rooms, where the rest of her shopping was waiting for her. Instead of following him, Candy took another turn and began walking towards Carrion's rooms. She suddenly felt the need to talk to him again and tell him about her trip outside. But when she knocked on his office door there was no reply.

Looking inside she saw that it was empty, the lights were off, but a strange glow illuminated the room. Checking that no one was watching her, Candy stepped inside in search of the light.

"Hello?" she called.

There was no reply, but the light seemed to glow brighter. It was coming from what seemed like an alcove on the far left-hand side of the room. Slowly Candy made her way towards the back of the room. She felt the whole time as if someone was watching her.

It was Carrion's collar that was glowing. Strange things swam behind the glass as if moving through water. Candy stepped towards it. It was in a cupboard, but the doors had been left open. She gazed at it transfixed. The nightmares pressed up against the glass as if sensing her near, and slid over one another.

Candy reached for the cupboard doors, holding them as if she wished to close them but couldn't. She continued to stare until someone spoke.

"Mistress?"

Candy snapped the cupboard doors shut, locking the evil thing away. She felt as if she had just been woken out of a trance, and had no idea how long she had been standing there.

It was Letheo. He had followed her into the room. From the look of his clothes he had been somewhere cold and damp, as his coat looked wet. He looked at her with an inquisitive gaze. Candy supposed he was wondering how in control of her mind she was today.

"Where is Lord Carrion?" Candy asked, eager not to get into a conversation with Letheo about what she had been doing with Carrion's collar. She didn't even know the answer herself.

"Not here," Letheo replied, his gaze swung past her to the cupboard and then back to her. Candy could tell he was trying to see what she had been staring at.

Candy didn't say anything as she walked past him and back out into the hallway. She wondered whether he had also gone to investigate the cupboard, but didn't look back around to check. She wondered as she walked, had Lord Carrion gone out? He had not said he would be going somewhere.

She knocked on Carrion's bedroom door. She heard a sound from within and tried the handle. It was unlocked, so cautiously she pushed it open. Behind it the room was lit with candles, and Miranda DeWinters was lying across the bed with a startled look on her usually sneering face. It took Candy a few seconds before she could react to the scene before her.

"What are you doing in here?" Candy demanded before she could even think. She could feel the anger boiling up in her, with unexpected ferociousness. She wanted to kill this woman. She was everywhere, like Candy's own shadow, just waiting for her to fall. Just waiting to step into her place.

The sneer reappeared on Miranda's face.

"I would have thought that was obvious," she replied, sitting up.

Candy noticed that she was wearing some kind of black silk corset. The sight only fuelled her rage.

"Get out."

"These rooms don't belong to you, Candy," Miranda replied sarcastically. She continued to grin, with no intention of moving.

Candy curled her hands into fists.

"I said get out!" she shouted. "Now!"

Miranda slid over to the side of the bed and took her time rearranging herself before climbing out. By now Candy's voice had alerted the servants and subsequently Lord Carrion. He walked past her into the room, and then looked back at her, framed in the doorway.

Candy rounded on him also.

"If you don't get rid of her, I swear…" Candy warned, looking past him. She stepped to the side and pushed the door open further. She didn't care who heard her, or how much of a scene she was making. But Carrion might. She challenged him with her eyes to try and make her be quiet and shut the door.

He said nothing. He did not even look at Miranda, but kept his eyes on Candy. It was if he had not even noticed that Miranda was in the room at all.

Miranda huffed, wrapped herself in Candy's silk dressing robe and walked out of the room. Candy did not look at her as she passed by, and once she was in the corridor, she slammed the door shut. She held Carrion's stare, determined not to back down.

"What was she doing here?" Candy demanded.

"Why do you think she was here Candy?"

Candy scowled.

"Don't talk to me like I'm stupid!"

"I'll talk to you how I like," Carrion replied, an edge of anger creeping into his voice now. "And you have been incredibly stupid lately."

"I don't care," Candy said wildly. "I hate her! She wants to kill me!"

Carrion raised his eyebrows. Had Candy been drinking again?

"Don't be ridiculous."

"I am not!" Candy shouted.

"You want to take her place? Then go ahead!" Carrion invited, pointing at the bed.

Candy hesitated. Her bravery began to ebb away as the argument reached an uncomfortable topic. Candy might hate Miranda, but she wasn't ready to render her useless.

"I didn't think so," Carrion said.

Candy felt her temper rise once more.

"Fine!" she said, stomping towards the bed and climbing on not very elegantly, with her bulging stomach in the way. "Lets go then, I'm ready!"

Carrion laughed at her, but when he saw Candy's expression he grew sombre once more.

"Stop it Candy."

"Just mind the baby with your oh so mightiness, and be quick about it because I have things to do," Candy said cruelly. Her words were cutting, and made Carrion recoil from her.

"Things to do? Like what? Drink wine?"

Candy felt herself blush with embarrassment.

"Well are you going to or not?"

"I wont have you whilst you are pregnant," Carrion replied coldly. He looked at her as if she was something dangerous that he couldn't predict. "That is why Miranda is here."

"You didn't have a problem before."

"Before what?" Carrion asked. Sometimes, or rather, most of the time he had no idea what Candy was talking about. She seemed to live to infuriate and confuse him. And yet, the more she railed at him, and the more she screamed and shouted the more he seemed drawn to her. Her honesty was both as painful to him as it was refreshing.

"When I came to you, every night. You didn't have a problem then!" Candy accused.

This time Candy's attack was a little too close to insulting his honour. What did she think he was, a monster? Of course his reputation was cruel. But what had he done to make her think this badly of him?

"Candy we were together as man and wife, only until I realised you were medicating yourself to the point where you could no longer consent. But you hid your habit well. You don't know how much it hurt to discover that you would rather be unconscious that with me. But by then, your were already pregnant."

Candy felt her retort die on her tongue. And a lump formed in her throat. All the time she had been trying to remember what had happened in these rooms, and had remembered nothing. It wasn't a loss of memories, but because they had not even existed in the first place. She remembered nothing because nothing had happened.

Candy felt tears forming in her eyes.

"You hate me," she said, her voice small and meek again. "I don't blame you."

Carrion shrugged out of his cloak. It seemed a long time ago now that he had been standing before the sacbrood, contemplating the future. He looked at Candy with apprehension. He didn't understand why he always relented to her, when he could so calmly face the monstrous sacbrood without fear.

"Are you staying?" he asked when she didn't appear to be making a move to leave.

Candy scowled at him once more.

"I'm not leaving so that you can sneak that woman back in here!" Candy replied.

Carrion supposed that that was all the reply that he was going to get, and knew better than to continue the argument. He felt her suspicious gaze follow him as he undressed. She didn't make him feel comfortable, and he wondered whether she was readying herself for a further attack. But Candy was silent.

Underneath his shirt Carrion was wiry, with the kind of muscles that came from hard work rather than lifting weights. Candy wondered how he managed to keep so lean when all she ever saw him doing was working in his office. Maybe he ran miles? Or did boxing? She began to imagine what he might do with his spare time, and also wondered why she had never thought about it before. Suddenly she realised she was starting at him, and blushing she looked away.

When he was finally dressed again, Candy left for the bathroom. When she returned Carrion looked as if he was already asleep, not that she could tell without creeping to his side of the bed to check. Climbing in carefully, she rearranged the pillows to accommodate her stomach and then lay self-consciously in the silence. Apparently this was all they had done for a long time.

Seemingly moments later Carrion woke her.

"What?" Candy asked.

"Water, here," he said.

Candy peered at him.

"You asked me for water," he said, holding out a glass to her. "Here."

"Did I?" Candy asked. She reached for the glass anyway. Maybe she had been talking in her sleep, she was kind of thirsty. She raised the glass to her lips, took a few gulps before spluttering. She looked up at Carrion feeling betrayed.

"What is this?"