A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

With Elora gone, the remaining three individuals gazed upon the basement door with various emotions.

Erik's amber eyes flickered with curiosity, Emma's mixed eyes mirrored a blend of exhaustion and anxiety, while Seraphina's crimson eyes conveyed a sense of deep concern.

Since Emma could barely keep herself upright, Erik decided to take her into a princess carry as he began walking down the stone stairs into the dimly lit, silent basement that had only moments ago echoed with agonising screams.

The air hung heavy with remnants of the dark energy by which Emily had tortured Liam.

When they reached the bottom and looked at the scene before them, they saw a barely recognisable clump of flesh that likely used to be Liam. Next to that stood Emily, her black hair now matching her eyes, as the corrupted red had disappeared.

It appeared as if Emily was staring into nothingness with tears in her eyes.

When she suddenly heard a sound coming from the entrance, her head swivelled that way with caution, but when she saw an exhausted Emma being carried by a large man with piercing, amber eyes, her tears only fell faster as she cautiously met Emma's gaze.

She whispered her sister's name, "Emma."

Seeing her big sister like this, Emma smiled as she could feel Emily had, at least somewhat, returned to normal. She asked Erik to let her go, and he did as she asked, carefully putting the tired woman on her feet. He watched as she slowly walked towards Emily.

They stood facing each other now, and the silence was palpable. Eventually, Emily took a step back as if afraid of what Emma might do.

Or perhaps, of what she might do to Emma.

Emily's voice quivered, "E- Emma, I…"

But Emma ignored her and quickly closed the distance between them before she hugged Emily, just like she had done when they were younger.

Only now, Emma was crying tears of happiness, "It's alright, big Em. All that matters is that you are back to normal! I saved you!"

Her last words came filled with an immense amount of pride and joy.

While Emily looked confused and uncertain about the whole situation, she seemed to accept Emma's explanation as fact for now and hugged her little sister back with trembling arms.

"Y- Yeah, you did, little Em. Thank you. I- I'm so sor-"

But Emma stopped her again by shaking her head and covering Emily's mouth with her hand, "Don't! Let's just forget what happened. You weren't yourself, and I don't blame you."

While no one in that room besides Emma believed there was truly no resentment at all in the girl's heart, Emily saw the exhaustion in her sister's eyes. She decided now was not the time to argue about the past with her.

She put on her best smile and looked Emma in her mismatched eyes, "You look exhausted, little Em. I'm not sure what it took to save me but go have some rest. We can talk later, okay?"

But Emma quickly shook her head, "N- No! I can stay awake. I finally got you back, and no-"

She was interrupted by a dark green flash of light behind her, after which she suddenly sagged into Emily's arms. Behind her stood Erik with a serious gaze and raised hand, clearing having used Elora's magic to put Emma to sleep.

There were multiple reasons they didn't use this on Emma before. For one, this kind of magic sleep, while hard to awaken from, never actually put its target into REM sleep, which limited its use for recovering from exhaustion.

Another reason was that using directed and powerful magic on an unawakened was dangerous for the target.

Luckily, the second reason was no longer a concern, and while the first still was, Erik realised Emma needed to be out of the room, and quick.

Emily looked at Erik with a mixture of gratitude and caution as she realised what he had just done, but otherwise, she knew nothing about him.

Meanwhile, Erik beckoned Seraphina, "Seraphina, take Emma to her room and put her on her bed. I'll have a talk with Emily about the future."

While the vampire woman wanted her time with Emily, she felt something strange was still going on with her old friend and decided not to argue.

When she moved to Emily's side and wanted to take Emma, the pale girl looked at the vampire cautiously. While Emily seemed anxious to get rid of Emma, she was also suspicious about this unknown woman.

Seraphina smiled with some complex emotions as she awkwardly avoided looking into Emily's eyes, "I, uh, remember what we called our club all those years ago? Women in black?"

Emily now looked truly surprised, "You… Olivia?! Are you expecting me to believe that?!"

But despite the fact she suspected them from simply having read her memories, now that the possibility of this woman being Olivia was out in the open, she suddenly started recognising some quirks and facial features of the Olivia she once knew.

However, she was afraid of being misled, as paranoia was still a large part of her personality.

Yet as her hands, which had not stopped trembling since Emma hugged her, started shaking harder, she quickly shoved Emma into Seraphina's arms.

She growled and pointed at the clump of blackened flesh that used to be a man, "If you harm her, I will make you beg to end up like that."

Seeing Seraphina nod seriously put her at ease a little as she watched with caution while the vampire woman carried Emma up the stairs with the unconscious girl's long white hair flowing behind them.

When they were gone, Emily and Erik looked each other in the eyes for a moment, Erik with silent dignity and Emily with equally silent determination.

Without breaking eye contact, Emily suddenly steps forward before grabbing Erik's shirt with both hands and leaning forward; finally breaking eye contact as her lower arms and forehead come to rest against his chest—a display of both vulnerability and determination.

Erik looked at her display with an understanding gaze.

Her entire body continued to shake as she broke the silence, "I don't know who you are or how I got here. The last thing I remember before waking up in this basement was when I tried to enslave you in the same place.

Before I say anything else, I want to thank you for saving Emma from me. I- I don't know if I can trust you with her, but I know you can't be much worse than I was."

She fell silent again for a moment before she turned her head upwards with tears streaming down her cheeks as she looked into the fierce amber eyes of Erik, "I know you must be at least partly responsible for giving me back a little clarity, but…"

Her voice became more desperate as her eyes showed intense struggle, "You need to do more! It- It's not good enough! I- I can feel the darkness nibbling at the edges of my being, and I can only barely hold it off for now!"

She now almost screamed as her hands trembled with immense force, which was obviously far from enough to make Erik waver, "Either do more or kill me! I can't go back to the person I was before! I won't!"

Clearly, the purification was far from complete or absolute, as there was still plenty of corruption left in Emily. But they had expected that and warned Emma about it as well.

Yet this was worse than they expected, making Erik look at the young woman with pity as he couldn't imagine this woman's struggle. Yet, he had to disappoint and shake his head, "There is nothing more I can do about your corruption for now.

Only when Emma grows stronger can we, eventually, remove more of your corruption, even if we can never truly remove everything. I won't kill you, however, because Emma would never forgive me regardless of my reasons, and frankly, I care more about her than you."

He shrugged, "Besides, Emma will be very useful in the future, and I would prefer she serves me willingly rather than forcefully through the covenant."

While normally, Emily would be happy about his admission to care about Emma and confused about what this covenant might mean, right now, her mind was not in a stable place as she screamed at Erik with fury burning in her black eyes, even as a corrupted red flicker occasionally past through them,

"Fuck you, you bastard! You can't give me a glimpse of sanity and light before letting me slip back into darkness! You can't! Do something!"

Suddenly, Emily heard a soft woman's voice next to her ear. A voice that, for some reason, filled her with dread as she saw flashes of herself floating in a sea of emptiness, "If you can't resist the darkness, I may have a solution for you."