Julie and Roman stepped near the bridge, which Ms. Dante had got it fixed since both Julie and Melanie had returned safely from the past. She stood in front of the bridge, looking at it apprehensively, where the path held darkness.

  She felt Roman slip his hand into hers, and he tugged it, "I am with you," he said, and she slowly moved her feet to follow him.

  The bridge slightly shook as they walked, making their way through the foggy darkness. But before they could reach the other side of the bridge, Roman heard something creak from behind, and he was quick to turn around. Wondering what happened, Julie turned in the same direction, and her eyes widened on seeing the creature of the witch stand on the same side she had seen it stand before.

  "Cillian?" Julie called the Corvin's name.

  Though Julie had opened the portal voluntarily once, it didn't mean she had it on her fingertips.

  "Are you going to visit the town?" asked the creature, its beak pointing at them.

  "She will need your help and intel, come with us," said Roman looking at the Corvin while feeling Julie's hand in his tighten as if worried that they would end up in another timeline.

  "Okay," replied Cillian, making his way towards where they stood before the couple continued to walk, making their way towards the once hidden town. "What are you looking for?" the Corvin asked Julie.

  Julie put her hand in her pocket and then pulled the colourless vial in her hand, "Do you know anything about this? Mother left it in the house for me."

  Cillian took hold of the vial from her, tilting the little glass in his twig-like hands. The twigs lengthened itself like a creeper that tried to move and hide the vial in his hand. He then shook his boney head before returning it to her.

  "I am not able to sense what it is," said Cillian, as Julie took the vial back in her hand. "When I was alive, I was able to sense what each of the potions could do. It was something that I had cultivated over time, but now that I am a Corvin, a creature that is the dead version of a witch, I cannot sense it."

  Julie pursed her lips, her eyebrows furrowing.

  "How do you cultivate such skill? To be able to know what each potion does?" asked Julie, her eyes looking at Cillian earnestly. She walked in the middle while on either side walked Roman and the Corvin.

  "It took me more than a decade to do that. You first learn to touch each of the potions in your hand. Some potions react readily, while some don't," explained Cillian in his rough, scratchy voice, which was far from the voice that she had known from the past she had visited. "You make use of the basic abilities that you have the sense of smell and touch, and you then combine your soul energy."

  "Did my mother have this ability too?" asked Julie, and to her question, Cillian shook his head.

  "No, Opaline never cultivated that skill."

  Roman, listening to them converse, questioned Cillian with, "Aren't some of the potions harmful to the witches?"

  "It is. Which is why most of the witches don't divulge into it. Consider it to be more on the lines of self harm," replied Cillian. His head had turned in Roman's direction, staring long at the vampire before turning to look ahead of their path. They were surrounded by trees, and the only light that came from was the moon hanging up in the sky. "There are various kinds of potions. From harmless ones, to the kind that can lead a witch's body to start decaying."

  That would mean that she would need to risk herself if she was planning to play and test the potions before she would be able to learn something so advanced. Cillian had more than a decade's experience, while she had just learned to tap into her soul energy.

  "Do you have any idea on what it might be?" Julie asked, referring to the vial that she had shown.

  Cillian shook his raven head, "Opaline was kind and generous, but she was also very secretive and the people around her were well aware of it."

  A soft sigh escaped from Julie's lips, and she then said, "I guess it wouldn't hurt in learning basic potions if I can identify what these do."

  On reaching the centre of the town, Julie felt as if she had stepped on a movie set where there were props all around them. The place was dead silent, and the corpse of people continued to stay where it was since their last visit.

  Julie had asked them not to move the bodies from their position so that she could learn more about the day when the curse had fallen upon the people and the land here. But now that she had lived through the time…… maybe it was time to put them to their graves, she thought in her mind.

  "What are you looking for?" asked Cillian, watching the witch and the vampire.

  "I want to see the souls of the people who have died here," said Julie, and she was sure that if Cillian was alive, he would have frowned at her words. "You said that there are souls of the witches that have been sacrificed, which has led to the lands to enrich itself with power. Do you know how many times it has happened? There must be some sort of pattern and we should be able to find what the Mortimer brothers are actually looking for."

  The creature gave her a nod and then said, "When I was alive, the witches had been attacked and had lost their lives twice. When you visited us, it was the third attack."

  "What about after that?" inquired Julie.

  "The next one was when Opaline passed away, but I don't know how many times after that the witches were attacked in here. I wasn't here to see it," answered Cillian. "Let me see if I can find some answer."

  The Corvin slowly moved from its place, walking around as if it was taking a stroll, while Roman stared at the creature, who was his relative. Julie and he took a walk by themselves, and when they moved to one part of the town, Julie's paused her feet, and she said,

  "I think this is the spot."

  She raised both her hands in front of her, and soon a light whisper and chittering carried itself in the wind.

  Julie closed her eyes, trying to connect with the energy of the land. Seconds turned to minute, but apart from the windy breeze, nothing changed, and Roman watched Julie, who slowly started to radiate a white and blue light around her, encapsulating her in a dome. Just when the sparks fell on Roman, he felt the sudden pull of his heart.

  He turned around and coughed, black blood appearing from his mouth. The Corvin's sight shifted from Julie to look at the vampire before it glided on the ground to come to stand in front of Roman.

  "Black blood…… is a sign of death," pointed the Corvin.

  "We are standing in a town which is nothing less than a cemetery of the dead, that is literal enough," responded Roman, wiping the blood from his mouth before Julie would open her eyes. This wasn't the first time he felt it from Julie's powers.

  Julie continued to harness the soul energy from the land, where it looked as if a channel had been formed between her and the ground she was standing on.

  While looking at Julie, Cillian said to Roman, "If you are looking for the Blackburns, there isn't one who is alive. And as much as the thought is unsettling that you are a vampire, you are the last line of the Blackburn, who were a family of witches."

  "I have deduced so much after learning you are a Blackburn," responded Roman, and the light that Julie pulled out from the ground reflected on his and the Corvin's features. To think that this Corvin was related to him, he would have never guessed. He asked, "Do you know what happened to them?"

  The creature raised its hand, and its fingers started to elongate before it fell on the ground. Moving like creepers, it inched towards the dome of light that surrounded Julie.

  Cillian said, "I was looking for my sister's family, when I came to learn that the last of the Blackburns had been sacrificed by the vampires. The same vampires, who are planning to hurt Julie."

  "The Mortimers?" questioned Roman, and Cillian moved his bird-like head up and down. "You were with Opaline, when the Mortimers were around. What do you know about them?"

  Roman had heard from Donovan about them, but he never got to hear the witch's version.

  "The Mortimers… Jaoquin wanted to create a stone which could help a person be able to contain more than one thing within themselves."

  "The dark stone," said Roman.

  "Yes, the dark stone. The stone isn't about carrying more than one ability, but it is about living as both vampire as well as witch…" explained Cillian, his voice turning nothing less to a whisper. "We Blackburns, we were witches who had abilities like the La Fay's, different but unique which not many could possess. It seems like your mother's family created the dark stone, under the Mortimers. But they never gave it to the vampires. It took me a while to figure out why I find you empty. You are as dead as me," came the blunt words from the Corvin.

  It was true. Roman was supposed to be dead but weren't all vampires like that.

  "Do you know what happened in between my mother escaping or running away from there?" questioned Roman.

  "I don't know what went wrong, but the Blackburn's family ended up on the wrong side. When the time came to give the Mortimers the dark stone, she replaced it with another stone before running away from the family," said the Corvin, before pausing as Roman coughed more black blood. He spat the blood on the ground before wiping his lips with the sleeves of his black shirt. "The soul energy in here is very pure. It will try to destruct anything that it finds to be impure."

  Roman, who believed that Cillian was talking about him, later noticed the creepers that had crept around the light of the dome, started to turn into dust, evaporating it as it moved up in the air.

  "Though there's no definite truth that it is what happened, I believe your mother crushed the stone before she decided to drink it to probably protect herself if the vampires came for her. But dark stones doesn't react to everyone in an expected way," said Cillian, and its fingers went back to their usual length.

  "Donovan said she never exhibited a single trait of a witch, which is why he never gave a thought about her family background," stated Roman, his eyebrows subtly furrowing. That meant that his mother consumed the stone before she met Donovan, and instead of it giving powers, it stole away her ability of being a witch.

  Did that mean that his mother's death was not caused because of him? Or the curse that ran in Donovan's family?

  "A lot of people have always tried to get their hands on a single dark stone. But only a few know about the side effects of the dark stone…… Roman," Cillian addressed him by his name for the very first time. "I don't know in what mind she took it, but the moment the dark stone reached your mother's lips…… she must have known what she did."

  Roman was young when his mother had passed away, but not once had he heard or seen his mother do anything out of her character. In his memory, she was always calm and smiled at him. He asked,

  "If it was the dark stone that deteriorated her health, why did it continue to damage even after I was born?"

  "Even after you remove the dark stone from the person, the effects will continue to reside. She probably didn't know that she passed it to you," said Cillian, turning to face Roman completely again. He offered, "I can try to check the dark stone if you want."

  "I thought you couldn't sense potions or things that are made by the witches," remarked Roman, his red eyes staring into the hollowness of the bird's eyes.

  Julie, who had been standing a little away from the two of them, finally dropped her hands to her side. She opened her eyes that she had earlier closed, and the dome of light slowly started to disperse itself in the atmosphere.

  Though in the beginning, she had trouble connecting to the energy this place held, she had finally succeeded, but at the same time, she felt overwhelmed. It felt as if she had touched something old and powerful. When she turned around, she caught sight of Roman and Cillian standing in front of each other while they stared.

  Julie asked, "Is everything alright?" not knowing if she missed something.

  "I was suggesting to Roman that he allow me to take a look at his heart that holds the dark stone," said Cillian, and this had Julie worried.

  "You want to dig your fingers into his chest?" asked Julie, her eyes slightly wide.

  "It isn't as bad as you think. Don't you want to know how much his heart has been corrupted or if there's anything that we don't know about?" asked Cillian and Julie realized how his speech had turned more proper now than the first few weeks.

  "Fine," replied Roman, but Julie wasn't sure about this. She asked Cillian,

  "Is it safe?"

  "I think so," came the reply from the Corvin. He said to them, "Let us move to one of the houses, than stand out here," and he walked towards the closest house. They entered the nearest house, and Roman used his ability to light up the unused candles in the house, brightening the dark house. Cillian instructed Roman, "Remove the fabric and lie down on the bed."

  Roman removed his shirt, and as he laid down on the bed, he said to Julie, "Don't be anxious."

  "He is right. It is time to use your healing ability that your mother taught you. You have done it before, you will be able to do it this time," said Cillian, moving towards the side of the bed and hovering above Roman. "This might hurt."

  "Get over with it," remarked Roman, knowing it was going to be more than just hurt.

  Julie came to stand at the head of the bed so that she could see what Cillian was going to do.

  Cillian brought his hand to place it flat on Roman's chest, and suddenly his twig-like fingers pierced into the chest. Roman's eyes turned bright red, and he grit his teeth because of the intrusion in his body that moved towards his heart.

  Julie didn't know what or how Cillian would determine, but right now, all she could tell was that Roman was in too much pain. His fangs were quick to come out, and a deep animal-like growl emerged from his throat. The Corvin's other hand was quick to move, and each finger turned into a creeper that moved to hold down the vampire, whose ripper side had emerged.

  Roman's features turned similar to when the silver bullet had dissolved itself in him. But this time, he looked much more lethal with every passing second the Corvin had its hand in his chest. Drops of blood He tried to get out of the hold, but the Corvin had bound him with its fingers, but Cillian knew he couldn't hold the boy for too long because he was much stronger than him.

  The flame in the candles flickered, and Julie turned to look at them, noticing how even though there was no wind inside the house, the flames were moving on their own accord.

  "He's hurting!" exclaimed Julie.

  The Corvin didn't release and instead only continued what it had started. When Roman released one of his arms, the creature finally pulled its hand out of his chest. It took a couple of seconds for his eyes to come back to normal and his fangs to disappear. Though the ripper side in Roman had been awakened, he lacked energy when it came to trying to harm the Corvin.

  "You can heal him now," instructed Cillian, stepping away from the bed and letting Julie take his place.

  "Why is he not healing like before?" asked Julie, watching more blood slide down his skin to fall on the old mattress of the bed.

  "His body is reaching its limit and trying to accommodate the instability that is being caused by the dark stone," replied Cillian, while Roman's body slowly started to turn to quieten, with the wound still open. Julie placed her hands on his chest, feeling the wetness of the blood. This time there was no light emitting from her hand, but Roman's wound started to close itself.

  It took a few more seconds before Julie pulled her hand away. As she wiped the blood on the sides of her dress, she heard Cillian say,

  "It is said that the dark stone often needs the help of a witch if a vampire wants to make use of it. Similar to the other stones that have been passed to the Elder vampires. But in his case, the stone attached itself to him."

  "Is it a bad thing?" asked Julie, and she moved closer to Roman.

  Cillian informed her, "The last owner of the dark stone, it brought the person death……" Julie's eyebrows furrowed and she placed her hand back on Roman's chest, unable to feel his heart beat.