12: Pray That You're Fast Enough to Flee.

Jesse was sweating and panting from his strapped down spot on the table. Dr. Maxfield waved a petri dish over his face, causing his face to vamp out. Jesse thrashed against his restraints, but Wes only put away the dish. Jesse's head slammed back down on the table without feeling. "Dr. Maxfield, please! Why are you doing this? My insides… they're burning up. I'm hungry."

Maxfield kept his gaze on the fresh vampire as he took out a voice recorder. "Subject 62547. After his initial transition, 62547 has undergone three days without feeding. Subject is weak but lucid." Wearing medical gloves, he opened Jesse's mouth. "Upper left and right cuspid normal after blood stimulus is removed." He then turned on a flashlight to check Jesse's eyes.

"What are you doing to me?" Jesse demanded.

"Pupils are at full dilation," Wes spoke to the recorder again before waving the light at his subject. "Sensitivity to light - obvious 11 on a scale from one to ten."

"What the hell is happening to me? Why am I so hungry? What are you doing to me?!"

A smirk tugged at Maxfield's lips as he brought the recorder back up. "Subject is confused, yet self-aware. Personality seems intact. Hunger remains primary focus. All in all appears to be a perfect candidate for my altered Vasile genome."

Damon pushed the slightly ajar door to Nova's bedroom open slowly. He knew it would be a long shot, but he needed Nova to accompany him to the Historical Ball at Whitmore. He had to keep an eye on the still ice cold and no humanity Romanian while also figuring out what the hell Wes Maxfield was doing at Whitmore. He found the ravenette sitting in her window nook with a large, old book her lap. Damon could only see the dark brown leather cover. She had heard his conversation with Elena over the phone and expected him to speak to her within minutes. The real book she was reading was one of Nessa's grimoires discarded under one of the boarding house beds.

"I take it Zina is still locked in her room?" Damon opened with as he walked further into the bedroom slowly.

Nova nodded slowly, her eyes unmoving from the pages. "For years she was forced to watch from the Other Side yet could never find Katia in particular. She searched the Other Side endlessly but yet she was never there either."

"So Zina had to have known then."

Another nod. "She had heard the rumors originating from where she did, but being sent away and raised by a clueless Katerina kept her uncertain. She was savagely raped in an alleyway by a high ranking moroi vampire one night. She will never wear short sleeves because of the horrific burn scars forever on each of her upper arms. When he had magic and fangs she knew she was in trouble; he was unlike Katerina or even Niklaus. When she became pregnant she could feel the siphoning, psychic bond but was unsure if it was because her own power extends from clairvoyancy, or because the child was inhuman. It was only after she endured childbirth and gave the infant away that she pleaded for Katerina to turn her."

Damon's eyes were substantially widened. Having spent the last century and a half with a younger brother of his own, he could just feel that the sudden acquiring of sisterly knowledge was a part of some scheme. For over 150 years Zina lived in her sister's shadow continuing to loathe her twin even after death. Why and when had they suddenly talked in depth? He cautiously eyed his reading fiancee. "Since when do you two speak calmly to one another, let alone share the wounds you can't lick better?"

She chuckled lightly at his comment. "She lost her child, Damon. When she could neither find Katia in life nor on the Other Side she knew Katia was out there somewhere. All she ever wanted was to so much as tell the child she did love her, especially since she escaped the Other Side, and before they even had a moment Remiel ripped Katia away." Finally, her emerald eyes looked up and met Damon's with mischief. "How do you think my sister feels currently? I can't exactly sympathize or anything, but in case you haven't noticed grief makes people do strange things. Even Katerina is off doing gods knows what just to preserve her own ass. All Zina has left is the remnants of the very blood who abandoned her."

He scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why would she involve herself with the Vasiles then for that very reason? If your parents hadn't abandoned her as a baby then she would have never been hunted by Klaus or lost her daughter. How do you know she's not still plotting to murder you?"

Nova's maroon lips had twisted into a dangerous smirk. "As much as the both of us loathe to admit it, she values my use greater than my death. Also, in case you haven't noticed, it kind of takes some effort in killing Vasiles. Myself especially. Now, come on; you have that look on your face that you're here for an obnoxious favor and that's why you've tried to keep my focus on Zina."

He hesitated for a moment. There was no possible way in all of creation that Zina and Nova were not up to something. Regardless of what they were scheming, he needed to know if Maxfield really was part of Augustine. "I need you to accompany me to the Historical Ball tonight… at Whitmore."

Her face immediately contorted into a frown even though she knew the basis of what he was going to ask. "Absolutely not. You can't pay me enough to step foot near that wretched college ever again. Unless of course you want me to go and eat Wes Maxfield. If I can kill the son of a bitch you can count me in."

Damon scoffed. "Not happening. It's a campus party, Nova. You're not allowed to murder anyone. And even compulsion has to be careful because we don't know who is on vervain or not. Don't you care to know what exactly Wes did to you, Zarya, and Clara? Why?"

"Nope," she dramatically popped the 'p' and turned back to reading. "He knows the plants that hurt us and knows enough of our lineage. He has knowledge of dhampirs. Gods only knows what he saw in our blood under the microscope. He deserves to die and that's it."

"You know he works with Saskia. He gave her a vial of some dhampir crap for who the fuck knows what reason. What if we don't find out what this guy has before he hands it over to her? Or maybe even Remiel? We don't have a single fucking clue what the lunatic's endgames are. Someone wants control of the family and eternal immortality. They want you docile and obedient to their commands. Are you seriously about to sit back while your scientific makeup ends up in the wrong hands?"

She had to admit that his argument was good indeed. Mildly convincing. It even got her to look up from the book again. "Once we have what we need then, in the end I'll kill him?"

His expression softened. "We'll kill him together in the most gruesome way if that's what you want."

At last she shrugged and closed her book. Nova had cut gaps in the thick pages decades prior to hide trinkets. It proved useful and the right size for hiding Nessa's grimoire. "Fine then, iubițel. I safely assume this is another one of those events where we have to dress as something?"

That time a smirk found its way to Damon's face. "You're correct, dolcezza. I figured we could go with an infamous historical couple."

"If you say Bonnie and Clyde I will throw you out of this window for being so plain and basic."

He laughed. "No, I promise. I was thinking more… King Henry VIII and his final wife, Queen Katherine Parr." A scowl was forming quickly on her countenance so he had to act quickly. "It's just a name, Nova! Would you rather be Anne Boelyn? One of the two who got beheaded? Or would you rather be the woman who pulled his whole life together and succeeded after his death?"

Nova let out an audible groan with her eye roll. "There are thousands of other infamous rulers and you want to go with douchey King Henry?" She shook her head as she stood, making her way to the large closet. "If you insist, my love. I recall seeing Queen Parr in a red gown once in my history lessons…" She muttered before fishing out a particular dress. "Will this suffice for you then? Costume stores lack authenticity."

Damon's eyes had widened again at the dress. It was clearly as old as they were, made with red satin and black lace. "Y-yeah, but where the hell did you get this? It's not one you've accumulated across the country in the last century; I don't recognize it."

Unknowingly, she had been staring down at the dress with memories resurfacing. Her countenance was unreadable and stoic, but Damon could see something glinting in her eyes. "I was supposed to wear this for my official induction into the family when I took the crown after my parents were done experimenting on me. I ran from Romania the morning that it was supposed to happen."

"I don't understand; I thought you turned and ran with nothing."

"I did, but I had a handmaid in Romania who actually cared for me. I knew where she lived with her family outside of the castle so I wrote to her when I could. She secretly sent me several of my belongings from Romania. As soon as she discovered I was missing she hid a few things for me including this because she had sewn it for me."

"Have you thought about a wedding dress then?" He spoke as she set the gown on her bed. The topic had actually startled her.

Her back remained to him, lips pulled into a tight line. There was something wavering in her emerald eyes. "No, I have not." Subconsciously she spun her engagement ring around on her finger.

He had struck a nerve somewhere in her humanity and he knew it. With the ghost of a smile Damon kissed the top of her head. "You probably should," he whispered in her ear before walking calmly out the door.

In a room forgotten at the end of the hall where Nessa Vasile once stayed, Zina knelt before a small altar she made on the floor. A pewter mortar sat before her filled with various herbs and small bones. A silver dagger was to her left, and a vase of roses to her right. Delicately she plucked out a single rose and held it in both of her hands with the thorny stem hanging down between her fingers over the mortar. In a matter of a minute the rose began to wither and turn black. Each thorn fell off on by one into the mortar until the stem itself disintegrated in. The black was creeping up from the bottom of the petals still sitting on top of her palms. Within another couple of seconds each petal was decayed. She let them fall slowly from her cold hands into the mortar.

With a shaky breath Zina then lifted the silver blade to her palm above the mortar. She dragged the point down her flesh ever so slowly, blood dripping into the other ingredients, while she muttered words in the Verbis Diablo. By the time she was finished cutting her palm the rest of the wound had healed and her ingredients igniting. She wasn't certain if it was going to work, to be honest, but if any one of them knew how to speak with Lucifer, it was Daciana.

[Flashback]

Again the Original hesitated in silence before replying. "I love my siblings dearly, do not mistake that ever. Niklaus and I swore fealty to one another. But Elijah…"

"What about Elijah…?" Wasn't he supposed to be the good brother?

She took a breath and whipped off the exit into Virginia. "Elijah compelled Zarya to forget her life before the accident. At first I thought it was perhaps a courtesy to Katerina, but recently… recently I discovered it was he who set up my being put under the same Moore spell I was born into to keep me in a casket just as Niklaus had done with the daggers."

Zina was appalled. "Wh-why would he do such a thing? And if it wasn't a favor to Katerina, then why did he compel Zarya?"

"Because Elijah knows the dangers of our family, of our blood. He knew where I came from, what I ran from. He saw what Esther's immortality spell did to me. I am a Cursed Twin of Saskia Vasile and Knight of Hell Cain. I swore fealty to his hybrid brother. I was - I am - stronger than all of them combined. Even my darling Niklaus. Though I have not touched that power since Elijah put me on ice."

"What power are you talking about? What was it that scared Elijah so badly then?"

Daciana was quiet for a long moment before deciding to answer truthfully. "I have - had - a distinct connection to Hell. When I was deeply uncertain with my abilities rooted nowhere, I turned to someone who could teach me."

Zina looked away from the Original, her dark eyes turning back out the windshield. "Lucifer."

She nodded. "Believe it or not, he has always seemed to take more interest or curiosity in our family than Remiel. He is there, if you know where to look."

[Present]

Zina was crestfallen at first when nothing happened. Her fists clenched in her lap. Maybe she just couldn't do magic like Daciana or Nessa could. Maybe she wasn't meant to reach out to him and she had to wait around if he ever wanted to tell her something. Why the hell had she even agreed to returning?

"Because you know your sister and daughter need you to keep them away from Remiel."

Her head jerked up instantly to find the blue eyed archangel sitting in her own window nook. The room had cooled significantly. "It… worked?" She mumbled.

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "Of course it worked. Did you honestly think Daciana didn't know how to reach me? She just knows better being one of the Originals because it starts to fry her mind or something. She was one of my favorites because of her loyalty but you're proving quite useful thanks to all of those psychic gifts of yours." He smirked. "So, what do you want? Because if it's just self-doubt then I can find more entertainment in my Cage."

Zina frowned as she stood. "It's not, thank you. Silas wants eternity with Amara by destroying the Other Side, but if he does that-"

"Then you lose your precious daughter forever. I can't just bring Katia back, Zina. You know that."

"I do, but Jeremy was brought back by Bonnie's sacrifice. A life for a life. That's how it works, isn't it?"

He smirked. "Most times, yes. But it's not just murder someone and you get your daughter back either. And you, my dear, are no witch of any kind."

"No, but I'm the closest thing to the dead, aren't I?" She held up her ruby bracelet. "I could see glimpses of the deceased my entire life. Every plant I touch rots in under a minute. If I could do more than see through the veil, then I could save my daughter."

He had finally stood and began pacing slowly around her. "What you're suggesting is even more volatile than just the madness Daciana carries. I didn't put together everything I did to bring you back just for you to explode into chunks, Zina."

"It's because you made me come back that Katia is on the Other Side right now!" She exclaimed suddenly. One of the window panes cracked down the middle. "A life for a life. Hers was ripped away as payment because I got my powers back. Nature has a difficult time finding us Vasiles but it still does in the end. Klaus Mikaelson ripped my heart out in 1860. Why the fuck did you make me come back in the 21st century?"

Lucifer was deathly quiet as he stood behind the Romanian. The minute felt like an eternity before he replied with only two words that shook Zina to the core. "Siya Vasile."

"So, as we know," Damon began with Jeremy sitting across from him, "in a psychotic lapse of judgment, Bonnie brought you back to life and died in the process. May she rest in peace."

Jeremy's eyes flicked to an empty seat before back to the vampire. "She's actually right over there."

From her spot hidden in a shadowy hallway, Zina watched the Bennett witch wave from the chair Damon thought was empty. Her nails dug into the wooden door frame slightly. Lucifer stood in the lit doorway unseen by anyone but Zina. "A human, really Zina?" He chastised. "You do realize he's a fraction of your age, right?"

You're eons old and vying for the affection of our only human descendant who isn't even 30, she thought in response. If she even whispered Damon might have heard her.

"From the beginning," Damon explained, "Silas' whole bad-guy plan was to kill himself, pass on to wherever he was gonna pass on to, and reunite with his dead girlfriend, Amara. I want to use his death to bring Bonnie back to life."

Zina's eyes widened with horripilation. The son of a bitch had also thought of the life for a life. It was no wonder he and her sister were meant to be together.

"To die, he has to be mortal." Damon stated. "If he's mortal, then he's a witch, and if he dies as a witch then he's stuck on the Other Side forever."

"He already tried to bring down the veil to the Other Side. He failed."

Lucifer shrugged. "Maybe he has a plan B. Maybe he wants to do more than just drop the veil and let all the ghosts out." When Zina looked up to him curiously, he added, "Powerful spells are bound by something even more powerful - the moon, a comet, a doppelgänger apparently. The Other Side was made only 2,000 years ago, and it still exists. That means Qetsiyah must have bound it to something that could exist just as long."

The ravenette quickly dashed back upstairs to her sister.

Zina had helped Nova into the old gown while explaining the plan to her. She walked into Whitmore with her head held high and Damon on her arm. Her emerald eyes bounced around quickly, taking in each detail she could. She caught Elena dressed up as Audrey Hepburn talking to a guy presumably in her class and covered her scoff as a small cough when Damon shot her a look. How pathetic Nova thought it was that Stefan kept trying high school for so long it convinced Elena to try college near their stupid town. A whole eternity of life and those dolts chose basic schooling.

"He says there should be a silver-looking amulet with Enochian engraved around it. It's not silver, it's titanium like angel blades."

For the first fifteen minutes Damon wouldn't even let go of her arm as they walked around. With just the charm in her voice they interacted with some of the staff members. It became abundantly obvious that some of them were hiding something.

"Remiel created an impenetrable rock to hide her mind and grace from her siblings, so Lucifer had Abaddon take one of the three of his feathers stashed away and infuse it to a talisman."

Only when Damon caught sight of Qetsiyah did he kiss his fiancee and step away from her. With him out of sight, Nova was able to start searching the artifacts for Lucifer's talisman. Truth be told she could very well stop Damon from breaking his brother's neck repeatedly and helping Silas, but not only did she not care about Stefan, Nova had her own scheme to attend to.

[Flashback to earlier]

"It can cut a rift between Hell and the Other Side with the right spell and magic since they're all connected. At the time of opening the rift someone of great sacrifice must die so Katia can step through."

"What happens if we cut the rift but don't get some poor soul to balance it out?" Nova asked as her sister tugged on the corset laces.

Zina shrugged. "It's going to take something as penance."

[Present]

"Jackpot," Nova muttered with a smirk when she found an artifact room. Everything was on display so nicely, except one singular talisman in a dimly lit corner. She snatched it right up and immediately felt the sheer, icy power radiating from it.

Why had Remiel made some rock to hide even from Lucifer if she loved him so much? Why had Lucifer retaliated by making some magical talisman? What had he ever intended on using it for, especially when he was in the Cage for so long? Not caring about the answers (or much of anything for that matter) Nova shoved the talisman between her breasts shoved so tightly together by the corset she wore. When she turned, she frowned seeing the youngest archangel in the doorway.

"You're not looking so hot there, whiny wings," she commented coldly.

Remiel touched her forehead where the skin was beginning to peel away from Runa's body. There were dark circles under her sinking, dark eyes. She also looked as if she had lost at least ten pounds; Runa's bones were becoming more visible beneath the nearly translucent skin. "Yes, that happens when a human body can no longer properly contain an archangel. I haven't got much time left before I need a new one."

"Well, I don't know how many times I've got to tell you," Nova boldly stepped forward towards the archangel, "but it's not going to be me. I know you need consent - funny thing about you bastards, really - and not a damn creature in this galaxy is getting my consent for anything. Especially using my body I've maintained for over a century and a half, thanks."

The archangel shrugged nonchalantly which set the vampire on edge. She began to casually stroll around the room, around Nova, looking at the artifacts. "I expect no less from you, Nova. Especially without your humanity. I'm certain I could threaten even the life of your beloved Damon and you still would not yield to me so why would I bother?"

Because she has a backup already, the Romanian realized bitterly as her emerald eyes followed Remiel. You wanted your brother's talisman too, didn't you?

"Perhaps if you had that humanity we could have been a team. You would be strong enough to contain me and I could give you everything you ever desired. All of that pain, that rage, I could take it away and solve your problems."

"Not interested."

"Yes, yes, I know," she waved Nova off as she ventured behind the vampire. "Just another of you wenches so deeply invested in my brother." She shook her head. "You know that's why you can't find the switch anymore? Why there's no humanity left in you, Nova? Because it is my brother's will."

"Seems your brother has better style then. Get on with it, Remiel; what the hell are you doing here? Especially since you know there is no humanity for me to turn back on."

"Honestly, I was wondering just how deeply rooted my brother's influence was in you. I see now that it is in fact so deep within that it even counteracted the curse of the twins. Who would have believed you and Zina could ever be in the same state, let alone working together? I don't suppose you'd tell me how my darling brother spat her out to you, hm?"

Nova shrugged and crossed her arms, growing impatient. "I wouldn't tell you even if I knew. In case you didn't get the memo because you've been too busy plotting and rotting, I was locked in a cell for the whole summer and next thing I knew the sister I only relatively recently found out I had was clawing into my head because this time she's alive. I'd love to know myself, but we have more pressing matters; like ending your life. And your daughter's, because that's what Saskia is, isn't she? She wasn't conceived by Runa in control or she wouldn't be as powerful as she is… or was. Hell if I know."

Remiel stopped when she came to the darkened corner the talisman had been sitting in. "No, she did not. Runa had never wanted offspring of her own, but it was easy to convince her how successful the line would become through the ages. Truthfully, I had quite a bit of hope for her." Nova audibly scoffed. "Yet she let me down each time to think only of herself. If she had killed Silas, Amara, and Qetsiyah then all of this currently could have been avoided."

"No," Nova shook her head and turned to look at the archangel with spite in her eyes. "Saskia bent over backwards for you. It's what drove her literally insane to this very fucking day. She did everything you ever wanted her to." She stopped suddenly with a realization that brought a smirk to Remiel's dry, cracking lips. "You never wanted her to kill them… you wanted Qetsiyah to create the Other Side."

"Ah, you and Zarya truly are the brightest of the blood. Katia was as well, mostly because she knew to take her knowledge and hide in the darkest corner of the Earth with her mouth shut. Of course I wanted Qetsiyah to create the Other Side. You think I wanted my precious Vasile women to wind up in Hell when they died? In my brother's jurisdiction? Absolutely not. I needed you all rounded up where I had access to you, given the right opportunity."

Nova took a cautious step back as the talisman burned icily against her flesh beneath the corset. "Get away from her," she heard Lucifer's voice echo in her mind. "Nova, take the talisman, and run! Now!"

"I want Silas to fully collapse the Other Side," Remiel continued as Nova took another step away from her. "I want you all running for your lives and begging for mercy because only then will I reach in and take out the worthy. And knowing how foolish the lot of you are - in Mystic Falls, in Lebanon - you will all do exactly what I require without even realizing it and then I will have a new vessel. I will have all that I want, need, and desire without any way of you idiots ever taking it away from me again!" A wrathful fire burned deep in her coal black eyes as she slowly advanced on Nova. "Without the Other Side you girls have nowhere to go but to me. Then the world will be darkened, the air pestilence to filthy humanity, and we will take what is rightfully ours."

My Gods, the Romanian realized. You had the fucking dhampirs. Saskia fried them all, but you had them imprisoned for future vessel use, didn't you, you fucking psychopath? You're the reason Katia is dead.

"Why don't you just be a good girl for once in your damned life and hand over my brother's little trinket?" She held her withering hand out demandingly. "He's been plotting against me, I can feel it. Just as I can feel that you have something of his creation from this room."

"Fuck that, and fuck you, thanks."

Nova grabbed two fistfuls of her gown and sped down the hall. She heard Remiel yell so loudly it broke the upstairs windows. To avoid being caught again by Whitmore, Nova ran at a remotely human pace down the stairs. A pang of angry pain struck her when she realized her long hair was no longer there to bounce as she ran. Instead, her short hair had been pulled off the sides of her face with shimmering diamond clips. The talisman was held firmly between her breasts. Everything shook suddenly as if there was an earthquake. Hastily her emerald eyes scanned the party for anyone at that point - Damon, Elena, Stefan, fuck even Silas or Qetsiyah would suffice. Eyes fell on her causing the rise and fall of her chest to quicken pace. Looking up she found Remiel glowering down at her from over the banister. She darted into the crowd even with the risk of being captured again.

"You need to call Damon and tell him you lied," Bonnie scolded Jeremy back at the boarding house.

"So, I can lie for you all summer as your witch translator, but when it's something I want-"

"Silas is too dangerous!"

"And bringing me back to life wasn't? Oh, right. It killed you!"

"I brought you back because Elena needed you."

Zina scowled in the darkened doorway she had been listening to them from. She mouthed Jeremy's reply of, 'Now she needs you' with deep sarcasm before feigning to vomit. Were they seriously hung up about saving each other when there were much more pressing matters at hand? How the hell did those two even become a thing? Zina masked her hurt with bitterness and anger.

"What about the consequences?" Bonnie argued. "Haven't we learned this by now? When you abuse magic, there is always a price."

"What's worse than this? What is worse than seeing you and hearing you… and not being able to feel you? This isn't enough anymore. Let Damon try to bring you back."

Before she rushed away from not being able to hear any more, a chill snapped up Zina's spine and she gasped.

"Zina, you stupid, psychic pizdă for the love of eternity tell me you can fucking hear me."

A psychic mind-link and speaking telepathically over a decent distance? That was mildly new for Zina, especially since she had been resurrected. "Prove to me it's you then and not some trickery from Remiel or anyone else."

"Klaus ripped out your heart with Remiel's stone the same day I got on the boat from Romania to Virginia. Anything else? Or perhaps you truly do wish me dead?"

"Okay, okay; what the hell is going on? Did you get the talisman?"

"Of course I got the fucking talisman and now I've got Remiel on my fucking ass! Get me out of here before she or Whitmore collect me for who the fuck knows what and you'll never see the stupid talisman!"

Reacting immediately, Zina dashed right upstairs. She hadn't even noticed the table she knocked over when she ran by or the glass the broke because of it. Bonnie and Jeremy jogged over to check out the noise. While Bonnie felt it had to be Silas or Qetsiyah, Jeremy's eyes were glued to the stairs. "It was Zina," he deduced. "She's still here."

"Jeremy, wait!" Bonnie called as he sprinted up the stairs to the second floor.

Jeremy looked down the hall each way, uncertain of which room Zina had fled to, until he found a door still partially ajar. At first he made his way slowly and cautiously, then he heard some strange language being spoken frantically by the Romanian resurrected vampire. When he opened the door, his hazel eyes went wide. How the hell was the vampire doing some kind of spell, or ritual? What the hell was she even doing surrounded by black rose petals and a chalice of… blood?

"Get out, now," she demanded hastily.

"Not until you tell me what you're doing because I'll worry about the how later."

Her jaw set tightly as she eyed him. Finally, she gave a small sigh. "I need to save my sister from Remiel and Whitmore now."

"Can you do it?"

What an odd question, given the circumstances, little Gilbert, Zina thought lightly. She looked down to the chalice of her own blood and casually flickering candles. Her bottom lip trembled. "I don't know…" She admitted softly. "I need something to channel but nothing Nessa left behind is giving me enough."

"What about me?" Her eyes widened. "I've been a hunter, on the Other Side, you name it. Granted, Nova has some issues to deal with but she is still my friend. Her humanity is only off because I died. Can you channel through me to save her?"

"I… I've never channeled another person before. You're not even a witch."

"Yeah, and neither are you." He boldly stepped into her circle and put his hands over hers on the silver chalice. "This better really be for Nova."

She looked into his eyes with genuine sincerity. "I promise you that it is, Jeremy."

Zina closed her eyes and began chanting again. That time she actually felt the click. The flames of the candles ignited into tall and bright red flames. Jeremy could feel the pull of whatever magic she was calling forward. It hadn't been painful at all, but more like… it merged the two of them. Their energies became one in sync with one another. It felt… powerful, and freezing cold.

Nova ran past everyone, kicking off her heels in the process and running barefoot. Each time she looked over her shoulder she saw Remiel closer and closer. When she finally made it outside, it was barely a minute before the temperature dropped and she could see her breath. Had nobody at Whitmore seriously cared about a rotting archangel chasing her through the damn grounds? If Saskia was in with Maxfield, could Remiel have allies in Augustine too?

Suddenly, Nova could hear chanting faintly in her head. It grew louder and stronger quickly until she recognized the Verbis Diablo they had been dubbing it. As the chant repeated itself, Nova joined in shouting it to the dark sky as only the moon bore down above her. She heard her sister's voice clearly, then Lucifer's, and… Jeremy's? They all continued on and on until poof, Nova was gone. Vanished in dark purple shadows right in the middle of the yard.

Remiel let out a wrathful wail that shook the sky above.