A/N Ok... I'll admit it. I am fantabulosly proud of this chapter! Yup, I am. I love it, hehe! But obviously it is up to you guys! I already got someone to read it first and wow! Thanks for that pre-review, it has so brihtened my spirits Belle! So, hopefully this is good enough for you lot, you lovely readers you!

So, I shall leave you now to read my chapter, and review, because you are kind like that! And I shall go off to the dentis (wish me luck) and then get down to actually using my half term wisely by doing coursework and revision. Well, I'll try anyway!

Kairos looked shocked, "She has already shown... signs of being an enchantress?"

"No... not exactly," Annabel replied, shifting uncomfortably under the equally shocked- and in Naomi's case, disapproving- looks of Kairos and Naomi. "What I mean is... this doesn't surprise me. Calla has always been... different. She thinks I don't know her, but I always watched from afar. We could never be close... not when I knew this was going to happen to her. And not when I knew it was my fault."

"It is not your fault." Naomi said stiffly, though she too had blamed herself.

"We have all dealt with the curse differently. You carried on, blindly ignoring it, I tried that... but it would never leave me. The castle would never... We never talked of it, but I often dreamed of it. And I know that... Calla did too. She wouldn't tell me, she told her father, and he told me. Of course he never knew of the significance... but I got her to describe it to me once, when she was little. It was the same place where you live," Annabel continued, looking at Kairos.

"She dreamt of the castle..." Kairos said quietly, looking distractedly into her tea. "But what of magic?"

"She has never used magic before, but..." Annabel looked to the ceiling, trying to keep herself from crying. "When... David died, she wouldn't come out of her room for a week. I couldn't do anything, I was too distraught myself... but Daniel went to comfort her. He said he found her, everyday, tending the roses she kept in a small vase. David had given her them for Valentine's day. But David died over a month after Valentine's. I don't know how she kept them alive... but I couldn't think of anything then. At the time it just made sense that she would cherish them. But now... I realise that she must have..."

"Used magic?" Naomi interrupted, shaking her head, "Nonsense, I mean that is... just plain silly, she just took care of them well."

"Perhaps, I am probably just looking for meaning where there is none but coincidence."

"No," Kairos said, still speaking in quiet tones, "I have kept a rose alive also. Roses are my favourite flower... they were what I first made magic upon."

"And they are what the curse centres around," Naomi added cuttingly.

"Yes, it seems this family has an affiliation with roses," Kairos said wryly.

"I wish I could have saved her. Why, why, why didn't I save her from this? Why didn't I break the curse, why couldn't I? It isn't fair!"

"Life isn't fair," Kairos said.

"You!" Naomi shouted at Kairos, rushing to hug her daughter who was now crying freely, "this is your fault! Without you this curse wouldn't be here, we could all have lived happier!"

"Do you not think I know that?" Kairos said, her emotions slipping suddenly. Crystal tears were rolling down her pale cheeks. Naomi looked shocked, Annabel wasn't seeing, she was just... there. Depression had taken her mind to a place where it could rest easier. And it was all down to Kairos. All the times she had ever tried to change things, ever tried to make a difference, it had gone wrong. Most of her life she had been watching as events happened, her mother had died, her father had descended into depression- much like Annabel's- and Beauty had grown so fair that no-one could compare. She had watched as the world went past her, as life went past her, as everyone she had ever known- or loved- went past her. She had only tried to take control but a few times. And it had gone deadly wrong. "I'm sorry but this is just something I must do!" She shouted, rising from the chair, her hair whipping round her in a newly conjured wind.

Calla and Beast had decided to spend the day in the courtyard. The sun was shining brightly and the fountain glistened as though jewel encrusted. The bench was occupied by Calla. Ivy was twisting itself around the stone legs, giving depth and colour to the designs already engraved onto it. Beast was lying by Calla's feet. To anyone approaching the sight would mimic a colour plate in a book of fairy tales, a young girl wearing a flowing green dress with a wolf resting at her feet like a dog at a fire, around them ivy covered ugly stone walls, enclosing them forever in a curse. As you walked closer the scene would get ever stranger, you would hear the quiet words of the girl, her voice tinkling like the fountain, and the growling replies of the Beast.

"This is surprisingly nice isn't it... I mean it's never normally this kind of weather here and I didn't expect..." Calla looked down at Beast, her eyes serious, "What I mean is... I never expected to come here and find,"

"A Beast?" Beast interrupted, not daring to look at her, for fear of her reaction. For fear she would nod and acknowledge that he was right, that he was indeed a Beast. Even now he tried to deny it. On the surface, he knew what he was and what he would always remain. On the surface he hated Kairos and he would never love. But below the surface... a different person remained, with hope.

"No, I expected that," she replied, mocking him, though her words cut him deeper than any ever spoken to him. He knew then. "I thought I would come here and find a monster. But I didn't, I found you. And no, I don't think you're a monster, what ever you look like on the surface." She smiled down at him, her red lips parting slightly showing her pale white teeth. He couldn't help but smile back, however contorted his teeth-baring may look. When he saw her smile, he had to smile too, even if it was just in his mind. Her smile flowed through him, warming him like never before. It filled his every atom with hope... and more.

"You don't know what that means to me," He replied, truthfully as his personality and male-ego could allow.

"It's just the truth," Calla said, shrugging and giving another small smile. She closed her eyes for a moment, and images flew over her closed lids. She saw so many things it was impossible to decipher each until they slowed, showing a bed. The image grew clearer and she saw her Grandmother, lying deathly still, her face grey and taut with age. Calla had never seen her Grandmother looking this ill, or this old. She saw her mother enter the room then, carrying a bowl of water and a cloth. Annabel wiped Naomi's forehead gently with the damp cloth, obviously trying to sooth a fever. Naomi's once red curls had turned a silvery grey. Calla gasped in shock at this sight as they had been as red as hers when she had left, with only a tendril here or there of grey.

"Calla, what is it? What's wrong?" Beast's worried tones reached her through her divination, if that was the right word for it.

Her eyes opened, and her pupils were vastly dilated, filling her normally blue eyes with darkness. "I must see Kairos."

Kairos wiped the mirror clean of the courtyard scene and leant heavily back in her throne. She was exhausted, such works of magic followed by quick transportation could do nothing but drain her vital energy. She sighed stormily, no doubt the coming conversation with Calla would also sap power from her, but it was all necessary. Everything was necessary now, in this final stretch. Soon she would be free to rest... assuming the Voice kept to its word.

The door flew open and Calla strode in between Kairos and the mirror. Her face was clouded with grief and anger. Her mouth was stone-set, her eyes filled with so many emotions they were like an ocean, forever changing.

"What have you done?"

"I have done what had to be done." Kairos said wearily, "I take it my vision got through to you?"

"Of course it did," Calla spat, "You knew it would! Why did you send me such a nightmare?"

"It is not a nightmare, but a vision of what is even now happening at your house,"

Calla gasped, choking back a sob, her eyes were water filled, intensifying the comparison to the oceans. "No, please, no," she said quietly, her voice choking again.

"I'm afraid it is so."

"Why did you do this?" Her voice grew stronger as her hate lashed out at Kairos, "Why?" Her words flew across the room roiling in anger. Kairos flinched as they hit her, not just because of the emotions wrapped in them but because they were filled with literal heat. Calla's powers were obviously extending. Kairos wished she could instruct her, show her how to control them, but for now they were enemies, whether either wished it or not, and she could not instruct an enemy. If only there had been time after... but alas, there was time for nothing after.

Calla's eyes widened, "Your cheek it's... bleeding,"

Kairos wiped her cheek, her fingers coming away bloodstained. "You did that," she said simply, with no anger or hate in her voice. She was emotionless, except for slight admiration. "You are an enchantress like me."

"I... no I can't be."

"You are, and you have the powers to save your grandmother, if you so wish it."

"I do? How? I need to see her, please, help me," Calla pleaded with her captor, unaware of the other presence in the room.

"You are free to leave, I do not keep you captive here."

Calla's eyes flew to the door, Beast was standing watching the two enchantresses. He had been shocked to see Calla fight Kairos with her own anger, and he had been pleased. But now... he knew she must go, he didn't need her to look at him with those pleading eyes. It only served to hurt him more.

"Go, you must. It is your duty to save your family, not to save me," he growled, before turning back to the staircase and running down it.

A tear trailed down Calla's rosy cheek as she turned back to Kairos. "I must go. Beast is right, it is my duty, and one I must fulfil."

"You sound as though you regret it?" Kairos said, not meaning to pry, but simply curious of this girl who was so like her, and yet reacted so differently. Would Calla have done the same as she had? Or could she have grown up like Calla if she had been raised with such a loving family? Such answers could never be answered, only pondered.

"I do not regret helping my family, that is a duty yes, but one I do eagerly, I could never live with myself if I did nothing. What I regret is this curse, and my inability to break it before you did such a thing as to force me to flee." Calla spoke with wisdom, her head held high. She spoke with a wisdom beyond her years, and words beyond her time.

"Very well, go to the bottom of the staircase and you shall find the door to the forest. Then you shall have only yourself as a guide." Kairos waved a hand lazily and Calla left the room. She didn't see the tears rolling down Kairos' cheek.

Beast was waiting at the bottom of the stairway, along with the double doors she knew would lead her away from this enchanted place. "I'm sorry Beast,"

"It is what you must do."

Calla stopped fighting the tears as she buried her head in Beast's fur, he stood still as a rock, not moving at all except the pounding of his heart. She hated to do this, she knew she was playing straight into Kairos' hands. The witch has planned this, she had cast some sort of spell on her Grandmother. Calla knew the witch had only done this because her and Beast must have been close to finding another way to break the curse, and that by leaving the witch would accomplish her plans. But she could not remain here when she knew her Grandmother was so ill, not now she knew she could save her. Calla was an enchantress. Now she thought about it didn't seem so strange, not compared to all the things that had happened to her recently.

"I don't want to leave, I know this is just what she wants. Please be strong while I'm gone?" She asked, looking directly into Beast's yellow eyes, not flinching at the closeness to his protruding fangs.

"I'll try,"

"I will come back, and we will save you, I promise."

"Do what you need to do, and don't think back to me, I'll be fine, honestly."

"I know. I promise I'll return Adam." And with that last utterance of his former name, she rose from the floor and walked to the doors. She opened one, and the sunlight cascaded in, showing the dust in the air. She turned to look at him, tears still flowing gently down her cheeks, then she was gone. And he knew she would never return.

A/N I am practiacally in tears here... oh wow, that was sad even if I do say so myself! But really, what do you think? Please, tell me all in your reviews! I want really juicy big long ones this chapter please!