~Epilogue~

She had never thought that she would be able to hate this place. Sure, she had known that it would hurt every time she went through the thick wooden door without him at her side, but she never thought that she would feel such rage before these shelves.

Inside nausea welled up, making her feel sick, her heart turning from icy to cold stone. Just looking at the grinning man who sat in the armchair across of her made her wanna throw up. He knew he had pressed her right with his words, giving her impossible options. Gripping her elbows even harder, boring her long nails into her own flesh, she managed to keep her voice steady and firm, draining strength from somewhere deep inside of her soul.

"So you say, unless I do as you want, all I hold dear will be crushed and spitted upon?"

"Pretty much. Even your father's and aunt's allies won't hold a chance against my warriors." The twitching in his cheek, indicating that he was about to laugh at her, made her want to take her father's sword and run it right through the violett haired man's throat. Taking a deep breath, she tried to think clear through all the dim in her skull.

"If I don't, everyone will die, if I do, I'll crush my own heart." Closing her eyes as she weighted everything she knew, the hair on her arms stood up. Some sixth sense warning her, she snapped her eyes open and found him standing very close to her, even his scent of too much perfume creeping up her nose.

"And not only that, if you marry me you'll become the most powerful woman in all of the Hells. Wouldn't that be something, eh?"

Who did he think he was, coming here from out of nowhere and claiming that he wanted her as his Bride, so that he could get the power of the Council of Ice? She felt like spitting at him. He wasn't a male, he was a worm, unworthy of ever having anything.

"First you threat me, and then you try to sweet talk me..." Almost whispering the words in disgust, she took a step back so they weren't so close. But he followed, not giving her space and almost making her scream to her father and the guards to throw him out of here, to kill him and humiliate him as much as possible.

"Step. Back." Cold rage spread through her body, as when she shielded the man she loved the most from the man who hurt him. And just like then, she was ready to use her magic to get her will through.

"Stop hiding yourself, show them who really are and throw them off completely." Rough words whispered against her skin in the dark, aiding her strength in this moment of need. Stretching her neck and back, she looked him straight in the eye, watching him take a wary step back.

"Are you really sure you should say that? One little movement from me, and this castle will bath in blood." She watched him reach slowly inside of his west, before he pulled out a bell in the most purest of silver, adorned with a delicate pattern of snowflakes and words in the old language. The very sight of the seemingly innocent instrument made her breath hitch in her throat.

A Gwylio o Dinistr. With just a single tune from it's thin bell, anyone who had sworn legacy to the one holding it would destroy that person's enemies, the magic in it granting them strength beyond any Devil or Demon.

Feeling her knees almost giving out and sending her down to kneel on the floor, she couldn't stop staring at it. Without that, he would never had been able to convince her, she had too much faith in her father and his men, to much faith in that old prediction she had been giving as an infant. Great luck and love had come to her, carried her through pain and sadness. Even as the one she loved was taken from her, she had never truly doubted it.

"'Dinistrio popeth a holl fel atal fy hun', 'Destroy everything and all who hinder me'. Hm, I wonder who more than the people in this castle would get killed... Ah, who cares?" As he read the inscription on the bell aloud, she felt cold dread spread through her body. Everyone who hindered him, everything which held her from telling him 'yes'.

Nervously licking her lips, she watched him look at her with a twisted amusement in his eyes. That sick grin of his was still on his lips, making her stomach turn over once again. Fighting back her instincts to throw up, to freeze him to a ice statue, to flee, she opened her mouth once again, feeling something black and cold spread through every fiber of her being.

She didn't recognize the cold voice with which she spoke, stopped feeling the soft silk which caressed her skin at every move she made, as she with four little words crushed herself and the hearts of the ones she loved.

"Alright, I'll marry you." Seeing his grin widen, her heart made one last beat before it fell down into darkness, shattering in millions of frozen pieces. "But you'll never have my heart nor my first of anything, since all that I have already given away."

"Ah, don't worry about that. If any man ever touch you, I'll just have to kill him! Wa ha ha ha ha!" But now, not even hearing his laugh made her feel anything. She was just cold, having frozen herself down almost to her very core, where she hid away from the outer world, hoping that she would be able to protect what she loved.

And so she stayed, until that one ball, when her heart once again started to beat, started to pain again. But before that, deep inside of herself, she choose not to see the pain in her father's eyes, ignoring the wondering and pitiful gazes others gave her. She was dead.

~The End~