Jace blinked, rubbing his eyes and looking around. It was still dark in the chamber, despite it being morning outside. Of course, Jace was not aware of this and therefore assumed it was still night outside. He groaned, sitting up, but stopped dead when he saw Vella. She was staring at him, looking absolutely horrified. Jace shivered, as if a chill went through the room. He shouldn’t ask why she looked that way, but his curiosity got the better of him. “Why are you looking at me that way?” Jace asked, furrowing his brows at the young girl. 

Vella shook her head, as if in pity and disappointment. “You love the Golden Witch.” Not a question. 

Jace’s eyes widened. “I never told you that,” he breathed. How could she know that?

Vella nodded. “You spoke a beautiful piece about her, and how you miss her. It was very sweet,” she added with a small smile. 

Jace shook his head. “I was just thinking all of that. I-I never said it out loud. How did you…” he trailed off, but it didn’t matter. 

“I’m different,” Vella replied simply. Yeah, no shit. Jace shook his head again, looking away. 

“Freak,” he murmured, drawing his knees to his chest. 

Vella frowned. “You think I’m a freak?” She sighed. “Everyone does. Except for the Golden Witch, of course.” Vella shuddered. “She is much more a freak than I could ever be.” 

And Jace could have sworn there was fear in the young girl’s eyes. 

“What do you mean? Zelie’s not a freak,” Jace’s mouth tightened. No one could call Zelie a freak without getting a broken jaw. 

Vella simply furrowed her brows in confusion. “You don’t know?” She asked, as if it were obvious. Jace shook his head. “Tsk, tsk, what a shame. I suppose she never told you.” 

Vella knew Jace too well. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut when he needed to. “Never told me what? What did Zelie never tell me?” Jace looked more worried than eager, but it didn’t matter in the end. 

Vella’s smile was a small, secret one. “That she is Damian Xaris’s twin sister, of course.”

Those words alone would have knocked Jace to his knees. “W-what? She’s-”

Vella’s glossy grey eyes glinted in the dim light. “Well, of course! Did you not notice the golden eyes they both have? The similar complexion? And of course, the dark streak,” she added with a small smile. 

Jace began to shake his head furiously. “No, you’re wrong. Zelie isn’t related to a murderer; she can’t be.”

Vella smiled, and for the first time Jace didn’t shrink from it. He was paralyzed in shock. “Oh, she most certainly is, friend. But don’t worry, you won’t ever be seeing her again. No one escapes these chambers.” 

She began to sway back and forth, talking in a sing-song voice. “The Golden Witch, the young, pretty witch. She has your heart in her hands, doesn’t she? But not for long. No, not for long at all. Not when she squeezes too hard, just enough,” Vella’s voice dropped, becoming cold as ice, “that it shatters.”

· ┈┈┈┈ ꕥ ┈┈┈┈ ·

Zelie sighed, sitting against an old oak tree by the Great Lake. She looked down at the book in her hands, filled with sketches. Her most recent was one she had put more effort into than most of the drawings. It was her and Jace, watching the water of the Great Lake together. She was leaning on his shoulder, and the stars were twinkling above them. Oh Jace, where are you? She gazed up at the blue-bird sky, wishing that someone would send her a sign that he was okay. 

Nothing happened, as she predicted. 

So Zelie simply watched the sky, her long black hair flowing in the breeze. But as that breeze became harsher and harsher, Zelie turned around to see none other than Calira Shacklevolt, the girl who was once her sister. “Well hey, baby sister! What are you doing out here by yourself?” 

Zelie clenched her teeth, eyes flashing. “Get. Away. From. Me.”

Cali simply shrugged and plopped down next to her sister. “No, I don’t think I will.” Zel just rolled her eyes and turned away, trying to contain her anger. Cali looked over Zel’s shoulder to see her most recent sketch. “That’s beautiful,” she whispered. “He would have loved it.”

Zelie simply nodded. “I know.” 

Would have. 

Those words spoke so much. That Cali didn’t think Jace was coming back. 

But Zelie did. She just didn’t know how. Jinx was still working on her plan, with little success. So despite everything, despite the horror her sister had become, despite her cruel words and twisted heart, Zelie pressed her face into Calira’s shoulder and cried, for everything and nothing at all. 

Cali wrapped her arms around her sister, tears glistening on her pale cheeks. 

To the naked eye, this was simply two girls coping with sad times. But to the Shacklevolt girls, it was an apology and a forgiving. It was a denial and an acceptance. And most of all, it was a mourning for what their life used to be. The people they used to be. 

But those people were gone, and they were never coming back the same way. 

Just like a certain golden-haired boy, trapped in darkness with only a wisp of a girl and a shattered soul for company.