“What happened to your face?” Ivy exclaimed.

Sasha could feel worry oozing from them, Ivy trailed her fingers along her skin, Elias, Isaak, and Greg all taking a step forward but then freezing in their stride.

“She marked you, didn’t she?” Isaak said.

“She did”, Denise confirmed before Sasha had the opportunity to tell them about her visit to the dead queen. The dragon had lifted one lazy eye, not caring about the fuss. She lay on Greg's sofa and she had no plan on moving. “And the queen of death is a notorious tricky negotiator. I’m looking forward to seeing her in action again.”

Ivy got her worry wrinkle between the eyes and Isaak had a stubborn expression.

“How are you doing?” Sasha looked at Elias. He looked dumbfounded. She didn’t want to talk about what she had done. “What happened at the castle?”

She wanted them to keep the focus on their task, not looking at her face, the black wings, and the tattoo were all too eye-catching, like a doom glooming over them and what lay ahead of them.

“About that”, Ivy put her hands around Sasha’s shoulder, pulling her forward and pushing for Denise to make room on the sofa. “Elias has some mild amnesia.”

“He forgets all about the queen taking the king's heart, no matter how many times we tell him”, Isaak added tiredly. Elias looked dumbfounded again, and Isaak nodded towards him. “See?”

That was the doom. Sasha sighed.

“And I cant seem to get whatever the queen put into him out of his system”, Greg added. Again, the same look in Elias's eyes. Isaak grunted.

Sasha saw black spots in front of her, despair filling her, yet another backlash. They needed Elias's help. Especially now, when she had just been stripped of magic. She looked at her friends, dread filling her. How could she tell them what she had traded?

“I’m not feeling very well Greg. Do you happen to have anything to eat?”

She was stalling, but she needed time to think this through.

Sasha was shuffling in soup and bread with melted butter and sighed happily. Living at the campus and having access to the kitchen was not bad. Greg's accommodations had their perks.

“You promised to not visit her again without me”, Elias said. He looked at her face, the black tattoo giving her away hundred times over. “You have her death mark.”

“Yeah”, Sasha said, putting the empty bowl aside and looking at her friends around the table. There were Greg, Ivy, Isaak, and Elias, but also some of Greg's colleagues and students, as well as Isaak's men at another table. Isaak had collected her complete force, and everything was set up. They would pull the strings of the queen.

“You promised”, Elias reminded her again. He bent forward, leaning in so close she could feel his breath warming her skin. “But I guess breaking promises are kind of your thing.” There was venom in his voice. “You’re eyes are the red princess.”

“We will have to replan”, Sasha looked to the side, her eyes not meeting his. “I know what I said, and I know I promised Elias, but I had to put things straight. I needed to do this by myself.”

Sasha took out the orb from within. This was it. This was her sacrifice. Would he understand? Could he forgive her?

The orb was not black anymore, but a most spectacular purple color. All heads turned to her, and she heard some gasps. “You must know that I wanted to go to her, to do this, so you should not doubt that I valued you more...” Sasha hesitated. Elias was not reaching out for the orb, but his eyes were locked on it. She knew how eager he was, he was not breathing, waiting for her every word. “I was willing to pay the price, my plan was simple and made perfect sense”, Sasha sighed and a small smile on her lips “but the thing is, I didn’t think she would ask for more. I thought my offer was generous enough.”

The group fell silent, the queen of death was giving everything its magic, but most of all she was known for death, for taking back the gifts. The black tattoo on Sasha’s face looked like an omen. Sasha knew what the thought was.

“What did she ask for?”

Isaak was the one to break the strained silence. Sasha reached out over the table, letting the orb smoothly roll over to Elias.

“Would you have let me go, Elias if you knew?” He took the orb in his hands, his eyes set on it, turning it around. “Would you have believed me?”

“I don’t know”, Elias said, both anger and awe playing at his face. “But I guess. Thank you”, he looked briefly at her.

She waited until she could see the orb entering Elias, uniting with him again, without effort, just as if it never had been separated from him. There was no going back now. All they could do was to dance to the whims of the queen.

Elias's lips lit up with a smile, but there was also sorrow in his eyes. A bittersweet reaction. Maybe he had missed the orb for too long. Maybe he knew the demands of death. Sasha couldn’t tell.

“Sasha, what did she ask of you”, Isaak prodded again. He had taken up his knife and was making marks on the table.

Sasha looked at them, nodding towards Isaak but then again locking eyes with Elias. Slowly she lifted her hands to her face, the fingertips followed the dark wings covering her face.

“She asked for my life, and your Elias” Sasha paused, waited for the implications to hit home before she continued, “should we not succeed in giving her all of the stolen magic of the queen.”