"IT'S BEEN THREE DAYS!" Tom roared as he smacked the Death Eater closest to him. The thunder boomed loudly as lightning struck close to where he stood. His voice lowered to a deadly cold tone that had everybody trembling. His rage—that fiery inferno where he yelled and hit them—was far less terrifying than the calm persona made of ice. "Where. Is. She?"

A younger Death Eater, a half-blood, stepped forward from the group. "My Lord, we've looked everywh—"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence before Tom cruciated him. The rest of them didn't flinch while the man writhed in pain. They were too busy fearing that they would be next. Many of them had found themselves at the wrong end of Tom's wrath.

"This is what she is going through while you are being useless! This is what your Dark Lady is being put through," He seethed as he looked over the group of pathetic imbeciles not even capable of tracking one of their own. Thunder boomed overhead.

A storm had perpetually covered the area. It only got darker the longer Tom went without Evelyn. It was as if the weather responded to his rage. It had already killed several people with its high winds, strikes of lightning, and dark clouds. Muggle news stations thought that it was the most peculiar and unexpected storm to ever grace Scotland.

The Hogwarts students just referred to it as "The Dark Days". Several weeks of dark terror whilst surrounded by violent storms and an even more violent man. Somehow, they knew Tom was the cause of it, though none of them were brave enough to face him to find out.

He stopped his torture momentarily to smooth his hair and calm his expression, though his jaw was perpetually clenched, just as it had been for two days. "Now," he said quietly, "does anyone have anything useful to say?"

Tom calmly walked around, circling the group like a pit viper looking for its prey. They were fools who served his father and now him. Perhaps they were regretting the oath they took. The mark on their arm would never let them forget it.

Tom had called on his army the moment he returned to Hogwarts to find Evelyn nowhere. He thought that perhaps she had escaped back to the bedroom—something that irked him but something he could forgive nonetheless. But when he returned, she wasn't anywhere. Not the library nor their room, not the Great Hall nor the shores of the Black Lake. Mattheo hadn't seen her anywhere and neither had his friends.

It was then that Tom attempted to pull at the bond between them only to find that it was blocked. At first, he thought that it had snapped, broken forever. He'd panicked for several hours before realizing that he faintly felt it. It wasn't dead. He couldn't track it, speak to it, or feel her but he knew she was alive. For now, that would have to be enough.

Tom pressed his wand to his arm and called his army to the Scottish Highlands. They appeared by the dozen until several hundred wizards with widened eyes stared at their new Dark Lord for the very first time.

It was then that Tom assumed his rightful position of power.

"Earlier this evening," Tom had boomed, "Evelyn Black was abducted from Hogsmeade by a group of radicals who think it wise to question my power. Your task is to bring her to me unharmed. Do this and you shall be rewarded."

A woman raised her hand. "My Lord, who is Evelyn Black?"

His jaw ticked. "My future wife and your future queen."

"But, sir,—"

A flash of green appeared and in seconds, the woman was dead. Tom's face remained cold as he once again addressed the group. "Do not question me or my power. If you do, your fate will be the same as hers. Find her. Now."

And they disappeared, black tendrils of smoke following them into the sky as Death Eater after Death Eater began to search for the missing witch. The Ministry had heard of the Death Eater movement but they didn't seem to retaliate, not when they hadn't technically done anything wrong. Tom intended to keep it that way as long as his love was returned to him unharmed.

He searched. Merlin, he searched for her. He combed every inch of land at his disposal. He cast charms that searched for her soul. He sent an entire bloody army to find her.

And yet after three days, all was silent. He hadn't slept in days because every time he walked into his empty bedroom, he was reminded of the time she was in it and his heart broke all over again.

His Little Dove, out there in the world. She was probably frightened, alone, beaten, and bruised. Merlin, he hoped nothing worse happened to her. He didn't know what he would do if that was the case. The guilt was already eating him alive the longer he went without any news.

Lucius Malfoy trembled as he stepped forward. "My Lord, I have contacted my connections in the ministry. The Aurors have agreed to aid in the search."

Tom's eyes flashed and his nostrils flared. He was about to hex the stupid man—because what Death Eater involves the bloody Aurors—but he stopped. Because at this point, he didn't care who found Evelyn. As long as she was found. "Very well," Tom muttered. "You are all excused. Continue the search. If I find that any of you have left a single stone unturned, your life shall be forfeit."

They all nodded before disappearing once again. Tom was alone once again.

Except he wasn't.

"We'll find her." Mattheo's voice sounded so small yet so sure. "I know it."

"Little Dove," he echoed inside his empty mind just as he had done every night since she was taken. "Stay strong. Stay strong for me, darling." Because he didn't know what he would do if she didn't. He didn't know how to pick up the pieces of a girl whose brokenness he had caused. He could only hope that his being there would be enough.

Tom did not doubt that he would find Evelyn. No corner of the Earth was too far. She was his and he was hers and they would be together again. He had to believe it or there was nothing left to live for. No, they would find her.

His only worry was how much of her would be left when they did.

. . .

The next night, something changed. Evelyn had been gone for four days—four bloody days—and yet today was the first day that Tom felt true darkness inside of him. Their bond... something was wrong.

Something had happened to her.

The bond was black. She was almost dead but at that moment, he almost wished he was because whatever she was enduring was enough to project her trauma across that little snapped string. He felt something on that fourth night, a sort of darkness that even he could not endure.

Tom apparated to the Chamber of Secrets. It was then that a lone tear escaped down his cheek, the saltwater droplet falling until it hit the stone floor.

"Evelyn," he whispered in a broken voice while he clutched his chest in agony. "My Little Dove."

And for the first time, Tom sobbed. He curled up against the pillar while his body let out every excruciating emotion. Anger that someone had dared to take her. Fury that no one could find her. Guilt that he was the reason she was taken. Fear that something awful was happening to her. Terror that she would die before he could reach her. Despair that he would never find her. Grief that both of them may never recover from. Sorrow that their bond seemed snapped.

But most of all, Tom cried over the broken feeling in his chest. He cried over the emptiness, a hole left behind that she should be filling.

"I need you. I need you back, Little Dove. Please." But, again, emptiness.

Tom prayed that night. He never believed in a higher power but that night, he prayed to whatever gods would listen. Bring her back, he begged. Please, bring her back to me. I'll do anything.

There was no answer, at least not then. The only noise was the harrowing sound of tears hitting the stone floor.

. . .

The fifth day was much of the same. Tom grasped for whatever strings of the bond he could feel while he furiously took out his anger and frustration on his fearful followers. At night, he searched every bloody hill, every fucking valley to find her. And still nothing.

But the sixth day was different.

Tom gathered his Death Eaters just as he had for the past several days. His exhaustion was beginning to eat away at him. There were dark circles under his even darker eyes and his expression seemed sharper, more dangerous. The Death Eaters tried to avoid his gaze. They knew that this was not a day to test his mercy.

He was about to ask them what they had found when Lucius spoke, "My Lord, I bring information useful for the search."

His eyes snapped up to the white-haired man. "What is it?" he hissed. His heart was pounding but he did not allow himself to feel hope, not when he had felt anything but that for six fucking days.

"The A-Aurors," he stuttered as Tom stalked him. "They found out the name of the two Death Eaters suspected to have taken her."

"Give me the wretched names." Names. I can find houses with names, information, family. I can find her with names. Names have power but so do I.

Lucius gulped. "Locke and Key."

Thunder boomed overhead just as a bolt of lightning struck only a few feet away. It illuminated the sight of Tom's sinister grin, half cast by shadows and half illuminated with bright blue electricity. He would kill those men and soon.

All that was left to do was find his future wife.

. . .

Tom spent the next several hours researching everything on the people supposedly called "Locke" and "Key" and found that they were disgruntled pureblood wizards who had previously engaged in petty crimes before seeming to stop back in September. When he met Evelyn.

He stayed up all night learning everything he could while his followers visited their homes. They were empty with no sight of where either man could be or where they might have hidden Evelyn but Tom didn't lose hope. Now that he was watching them, all they needed was to slip up once. He was keeping an eye on his father's name curse—if Locke or Key said it, he would know. Everyone is stupid once and all he needed was once.

It was late afternoon on the seventh day since her disappearance and Tom had spent his day searching the purebloods' homes diligently. They had no family that survived after the war and they seemed to keep very little. Whatever personal trinkets they had valued, they either destroyed or burned with them.

Except...

There was a corner sticking out just below the mattress. A piece of paper, it seemed, weathered barely noticeable through the equally battered bed. But Tom saw it.

He pulled it out slowly so as not to damage it only to find something that made him grin.

"We're leaving," he called to the Death Eaters in the house. He fingered the picture, knowing that it would mean seeing Evelyn soon. Because on that weathered photograph was a picture of a very familiar house. The safehouse that he had once killed those two rebellious fools earlier in the year.

"Did you find something, My Lord?" one of his followers asked.

Tom grinned but it was anything but happy. It was an expression that meant war. It was an expression that meant death. Shadows rose to find him, creating another storm over the muggle town they infiltrated. The Dark Days continued to follow him, even here. But they wouldn't be dark for much longer.

"Yes," he said. Thunder echoed in the distance and a Death Eater gulped at how strangely calm he was being, especially since the storm was giving his inner turmoil away. "I know where she is."

"I'm coming Little Dove," he sent down the frayed bond. "I'm coming."

This chapter is sooo short... sorry! But also, if there's any chapter that should be short, it's the one where they aren't together lol. I'm already partway through the next one so it'll be coming very very soon. We're about to see Tom kick some major ass so get ready.