When she was standing at an arm's length to the wall, she pressed her hand to it. The anacondas glided on her hand started to crawl up towards her neck with their mouths open and fangs bared as if to bite her. She started to chant some spell. "Apperire Viam…"

The anacondas hissed and became agitated. Emma hissed again, "Apperire Viam…" One of them attacked her neck and pierced its fangs in her neck. Emma jerked her head up as if she had just taken a needle. "Ahh!"

​​

The anacondas started to climb her head.

Dawn shrieked. She pressed her hand to her mouth to stop shrieking when a triangular black colored stone jutted out of the wall towards her left. Emma held the stone and turned it clockwise. The walls started to glide. On the other side was the entrance to a highly developed city. It was as if they were viewing a city of gold.

As soon as the walls glided, the snakes slithered back into the bushes.

"This is the Kingdom of Ixoviya where the sorceresses and warlocks live ruled by their Queen." Emma released the triangular stone and walked to the edge of the city, the threshold of something that awaited Dawn's destiny. "Are you all-in?" she asked as she raised her eyebrow. Her eyes that were fiery red moments ago were now duller.

Dawn looked up at the city and her mouth dropped. Dawn nodded.

Ileus and Brantley moved behind Dawn.

Emma noticed and said, "If you two are going to come with her, then you have to wear talismans across your neck."

'Dawn!' Quetz called her. 'Where are you? Why can I feel your presence so weakly?'

'I am on the edge of the Kingdom of Ixoviya.'

'If you go in, I won't be able to track you at all. I will be blindly hovering over the sky because for me all this looks like a thick dense jungle from the top.' She could hear him flapping his wings in anxiety. 'And why is Rirsyr here? He is watching me like a hawk.'

'Brantley and Ileus are with me. Stay someplace safe until I return. Don't do anything that will jeopardize your safety.'

'Safety? I think Rirsyr has already cast invisibility spells around him and me, because I am constantly bombarded with birds who can't see me!'

'Good! Then stay put and wait for my signal.'

'Dawn, be careful. Why am I feeling so nervous? You should know that without your presence I will be constantly scared.'

'I know Quetz, but please trust me this time.'

'Okay, please be safe,' he said.

Dawn could feel his anguish through their mental bond.

"What talismans?" asked Ileus with a frown.

"Those are for your safety. They will let the others know that you aren't a threat to them and that you are a guest of the queen. However, your magical powers are going to get limited," replied Emma as if feeling satisfied, as if warning him that she would take her revenge when once on the inside.

"I need to talk to Ileus and Dawn," said Brantley.

Emma narrowed her gaze at him. "Hurry up, because the gates will close in less than ten minutes."

"I have no intentions of talking with you Brantley!" said Dawn. "So if you want to accompany us, then do it at your own will because trust me we are not going to help you one bit if you get in a dangerous situation in this place. In fact I would love to watch you die!"

"Let's hear what he wants Dawn," said Ileus. "We don't have much time and right now we don't have much time to contemplate on who is going to die. As far as I know if the sun comes up, we are going to lose the vampire and that is one chance I don't want to take."

Dawn gritted her teeth. Why was Ileus taking Brantley's side? They walked towards the altar and when they were far away from Emma, Brantley looked up at the sky, closed his eyes and his red beams of light coiled around his hands that reached his forearms. When he opened his eyes, they were glinting orange. Dawn stepped back.

"What the hell are you doing?" she said, fear rising in her heart. She shouldn't have trusted this man. Was he trying to make her incapable of her magic? "Damn it! I should have known your intentions," she said and stepped back.

Brantley brought his hands forward and suddenly threw the red beams around her stomach. Dawn was shocked as hell. She shrieked. "My babies!" but her voice came out in stifled groans. She tried to run away from that man, as tears began to fall from her eyes. She knew that he was dangerous. He was trying to abort her babies with his magic. She couldn't move a step and struggled to get out of that spell. But the red lights continued to coil around her stomach. Surprisingly she felt warmth in those lights. "I will kill you Brantley, the moment you release me."

Five minutes later when the lights receded in his hands, Brantley took a deep breath. Angered, shocked and bitter, Dawn attacked him with her magic. The blue lights that came from her hands struck him with so much force that he was thrown twenty feet away.

"Stop it Dawn!" Ileus shouted.

"Stop it? Did you see what he did? He has murdered my babies! I am going to kill him!" She said and launched a fresh attack on him.

Brantley got up and dodged her attacks. But Dawn was relentless. Her motherly instincts kicked it.

"The gates are closing!" Emma shouted. "We have only four minutes!"

"I need four minutes to kill this bastard," said Dawn. She was in a frenzy and whatever spells she knew, she was throwing them at him.

'Dawn, I want to come down.' Quetz said, his wings fluttering dangerously. Rirsyr was sitting calmly watching his son getting nervous.

"Dawn!" Ileus shouted. "Brantley only tried to save your babies."

Dawn fired yet another shot of white light that was sure to char him to death. "What?" she said not really listening to him.

Angry and irritated at her impulsiveness, Ileus had to flick his hands to freeze her movements.

"Release me!" she yelled. "I will kill this pathetic creature!"

"Do you even feel any pain? Do you feel that you have bled?" Ileus reasoned.

Dawn frowned. She didn't.

"He has cast that spell to protect your babies. The place you are about to enter is full of sorcerers. What do you think is going to happen if you go there unprotected?"

"Two minutes!" Emma shouted. The walls had started sliding in. The anacondas were hissing.

"What?" Dawn's eyes flitted to Brantley who was now looking as if he would explode any moment. He flicked his green hair back and looked at her.

"Why are you doing all this?" she asked. She was totally bewildered by Brantley's behavior.

"There's no time right now for explanations Dawn," he said. "Once we reach inside, I will give all your answers."

"If you don't come now, the gates will close forever and you will never be allowed entry. And with that you will never be able to see Daryn again."

Ileus held Dawn's hand and parthoned to where Emma was, with Brantley on heel.

They crossed the gates and entered the Kingdom of Ixoviya.

As soon as they crossed the gates, air rippled and the wall closed behind them.

Suddenly—