Prologue

Karel's almost lifeless body was kneeling before Klara, his long-lost sister. Karel's expression was contorted in pain as he sat on his knees, the two shards already impaled in his chest. He glanced up to look into that familiar face, which bore hazelnut eyes, looking on in bitterness and loathing.

"This is for Kurtis, you bastard!" Klara said, raising the last shard in her left hand to stab her wounded brother in the head, as he did with Eckhardt; the last time.

"A speech for me? Too sublime for an immortal, don't you think?" Karel said, his eyes exposing a scheme. She felt anxious as she saw Joachim Karel's enraged gaze. "Go on, sister, kill me!"

She elevated the golden shard above her head, ready to stab the blond man, but as she blinked, she was no longer looking at her evil brother, but instead at someone familiar. A man with dark hair with a fringe hanging in front of a pair of sky-blue eyes watched her sadly as she held the very weapon to kill him.

It's not him; it's Karel playing a trick on you! Her mind tries to warn, but her heart wouldn't accept seeing the two shards stuck in Kurtis' bleeding chest. She let out a cry of agony and grief.

Klara released the grip on the shard as it dropped and hit the ground. She placed her hand on her mouth as she stared at the scene in front of her in horror.

"No…" she mumbled, kneeling down, Klara stroked Kurtis's hair aside to see the painful expression. The suffering was enough for her to start crying and she shut her eyes for just a second when all of a sudden it hit her. Klara's entire body went nailed against the ground; before she knew it, she next heard a clang of metal. Her brother had taken the shard from the ground as he pinned her down.

"Sister, do you think I can be trounced?" He said with his body pressing on hers as he leaned the knife dangerously close to her throat. "Always letting your emotions take the lead. Don't you see where such behavior can take you? Tell me, sister, how does it feel to be killed by your beloved one?"

"Why don't you change back to your true form, brother!" She spat at him, but she knew he wasn't going to.

Karel wanted Klara's last vision before dying to be that of Kurtis Trent. Karel thoroughly enjoyed her sorrow and despair, all written on her face. He raised the shard without hesitation and, with all his force, stabbed his sister.