Lucas' POV
"Lucian, I really should have told you about this... I really should have told you about it long ago. But I get this kind of feeling... you know, if I don't talk about it, then it means this whole thing has never happened... And Derek has never betrayed me." I said in a low voice.
Lucian was silent.
"Anyway," I said. "it wasn't very long until the Red Queen found out that Derek was just lying to get back to the Underground City. So the Red Queen was furious and wanted to kill him. You remember the time that I was summoned to King's Land. I was actually forced to go there to cast an imprint on Derek. I did it and I tortured him. But it was just for the Red Queen to know that I was her loyal subject. Then, I faked his death by sending a corpse back to his uncle. I was planning to hide him somewhere, but those fucking traveling druids took him away. I was enraged, so I took his brother Darren away from the brothel to replace him. I thought one day he would come back to me for the sake of his brother, but he didn't. I haven't been able to reach him through the imprint, so I thought he was dead. But now, he came back."
"Is it possible to eliminate the imprint?" Lucian asked.
"He ripped off his heart, Sir," the fish head said. "He isn't alive, but he isn't dead, either."
Lucian looked at the fish head, frowned, and asked me, "What did he say?"
"Oh, fuck. The traveling druids ripped off his heart. They changed him into a living dead. That's why the imprint stops working. He couldn't feel anything," I said.
I couldn't think of the pain and torture that Derek had been through.
"Fuck!" I threw up my arms in the air and covered my face. "Am I the most fucking horrible person in the world?! What have I done wrong?! Among all the fucking directions in the world, he fucking chose the one that was away from me!"
Then, I lifted my head and said, "Lucian, brother, tell me this is not my fault! Tell me right now!"
Lucian was silent.
"Lucian! Talk to me!" I shouted. "I don't expect everyone to understand me. Fuck it, I don't understand myself. But you have to understand me, brother! You have to!"
Lucian looked at me. I couldn't tell what the expression was in his eyes.
He wasn't good at disclosing his feelings, and I was incapable of detecting complicated changes in facial expressions.
Eventually, he looked into my eyes and said in a tender voice, "It's not your fault, Luke."
Louisa's POV
When I got to the Dimgrave Port, I saw the desolate warehouse standing at the tip of the dock. From a distance, it looked like a dark, silent old soldier, with wrinkles and scars all over his face.
"Zowie guacamole! What's going on?!" Colt looked up at the sky and said. "The sun is disappearing!"
I looked up and saw a huge dark shadow chewing up the sun, one bit at a time. The remaining part of the sun was slowly turning into a dark orange color.
"It's the solar eclipse," Alex said. He was pushing a wheelchair, which Derek was sitting on. "I've seen it before. The Shaman in our village said that it happens when the moon blocks the sun."
The world was getting dark. The warehouse was immediately illuminated with pale blue fire as if it was covered by a layer of blue radiation shield or something.
"Ahhh! The house is glowing! It's burning but there's no fire!" Colt shouted.
"It's the one-way Realm. It's cast by the traveling druids who brought the vampires and Darren here," Derek said to me. "People can go inside without any problems, but they can't get out. You can melt it with the Element Fire of yours."
"I can't control the fire," I said. "It only appears when I got extremely angry."
Derek sighed and said, "You can control it, for it is part of you. You just need to concentrate."
"Louisa, I really have a bad feeling about this. Do we have to go inside the warehouse? It looks very creepy!" Colt said in a trembling voice, leaning against Alex as if he was about to faint.
"Colt, you've already been to a vampire castle, where werewolves fought druids. You'll be fine in a warehouse," I tried to comfort him.
"Louisa!!!"
I heard Will's terrified voice coming from inside the house.
"Will! I'm here! Stay there and I'm coming to get you!" I said and concentrated on my hands.
Then, I saw pale blue fire appearing on both of my hands.
"Oh, no! Now Louisa's on fire!" Colt covered his eyes and looked through the gaps in his fingers.
I placed both of my hands on the warehouse door and the blue shield shattered almost instantly and crumbled into thousands of pieces.
"You're getting stronger, Louisa," Derek murmured in a low voice. "I thought you only inherited your father King Duko's werewolf blood, but it turned out you were also a very powerful Gifted One. It makes sense, because your mother, Princess Tallulah, was one of the most powerful witches."
I ignored him and rushed into the warehouse and saw Will and Vincent standing in front of me at the entrance.
I hugged Will in my arms and kissed his head all over.
I didn't know why, but tears started to drop from my eyes.
"Oh, Will. It's so good to see you're alright. Please never leave me again!" I cried and said.
Then, I looked at Vincent and said, "I'm sorry, Vincent. I shouldn't have got you involved in this. I didn't know that the traveling druids were looking for Darren, and..."
"It's always a great pleasure to assist a young lady like you, Miss Louisa. I'm inspired by your trailblazing commitment and tremendous courage. Please understand that we have to take Darren away. Those traveling druids are very dangerous creatures, as well as his toxic warlock brother." Vincent said with his sight scanning and dropping on Derek.
Derek withdrew a bit and looked very intimidated.
"He tricked us and lured us into this warehouse. Then, he asked his traveling druid friends to cast a one-way Realm over this place, so we can't get out!" Will stared at Derek and accused indignantly, waving his arms. "My arm was broken when I tried to bang against the Realm! And it still hurts very badly! Especially when I hold it up like this!"
I held Will up in my arms while gently patting his arm. He leaned against my body while pressing his face against my shoulder.
I looked around and asked, "Where's Darren?"