"This is a terrible idea. Let's go back." Zander repeats the words for the hundredth time.

After we had a rather sappy emotional path down the memory lane, we or more like I decided that reminiscing those moments would only hurt more. And no matter how much we pushed it aside, Zander and I had a far more important task to do than dwell over my family drama.

So to focus on our actual task, I asked Zander about the information he'd gathered from the shadow creature in the Moonriff Mountain on how to capture Thanatos.

Zander had given me a rather abhorred expression when he'd narrated Swarovski's twisting words,

'Only the one who had been keeping captive the trickiest creature knows how to capture Thanatos. And you're closer to the person than anyone else.' The shadow man had said.

It hadn't really made much sense. Capturing trickiest creatures? As far as I knew, sirens and demons were the trickiest creatures.

But no one had ever captured demons or sirens. And Zander was close to the person?

Was it his mother? Or my mother?

These two were the only ones who could capture those two species. And we'd been searching through Queen Annabeth's archives for enough time now. So we decided to check my mother's first this time.

In existing time, there weren't any other sirens except me and Layla. But in my mother's youth, there were. I didn't particularly know whether she captured them for some reason or not. So I wanted to find out.

And that is how we ended up back in the sea castle sneaking through the hallways like some phantom theives so that we could get to the store room where the records are without being spotted by the merfolks or worse yet Ursula.

I wouldn't have really minded being caught but Zander seems adamant I stay hidden for the while. His stupid excuse of a reasoning being us having to keep Mellisa's mission a secret.

I know deep down he had been serious about me taking a few days away from queenly duties and that was the actual reasoning but I'd let it slide.

'She was right. You're beautiful.'

His words from earlier ran through my head again making a frown pull on my lips at the strange feeling it bought.

"Earth to, Marilla. This is really not the time to fantasize about my handsome face. We need to get out of here." Zander waved his hand in front of my face snapping me out of my reverie.

We were hidden in a shabby corner of the corridors in front of the store room's double doors.

I narrowed my eyes at him in the darkness, "You talk about going back one more time and I'll punch you."

"Why so violent?" He mumbles taking a sneaky step ahead, "Lets just scan the records and get back soon before someone kills you."

"The merfolks won't kill me. Stop being dramatic." I roll my eyes taking another stealthy step towards the double doors.

This would've been so much more easier if he knew how the store room looked like and teleported us directly inside it. But then I didn't blame him, how could he possibly know how the store room looked like when he hadn't ever step foot in the place except one time yesterday?

"Yeah, they won't kill you. They'll just make you lead a suicide war." Zander snorts.

Ignoring his words, I grab hold of his wrist and pull him along on a mad dash from one side of the hallway to another.

"Woah." Zander let's out a surprised yelp as I tug him along towards the double doors and into the store room in a rush.

"Finally." I breathe out as the smell of files and wooden shelves engulf us.

"Don't tell me I'll have to look through all of these." Zander's face takes on a horrified expression as he takes in the dozens of floor-to-ceiling length shelves.

I glance at him.

Zander's hair was a disheveled mess falling over his forehead like always, his eyes peeking through the dark tresses as he made no effort to ward them.

I look away fighting the urge to brush them off from his eyes.

"Not really. We'll just look through the records of the people in the dungeons from my mother's youth years and check whether there were any sirens. If yes, we'll then try to find out how she captured them. If not, then—"

"Then we check my mom's records?" Zander completed and I offered a subtle nod.

"Okay then," He rubbed his palms together, "Let's start already. We need to return back fast."

Without waiting for my answer, he moves towards the records of BC century years when many sirens still existed and weren't eradicated by hunters.

Zander pulls out a file and I mimic pulling a file from another year.

My eyes skim over the names with rapid speed, scanning their crimes, specie type and whether they had been kept captive in any way other than being locked in the dungeons. Zander does the same.

We pull one file after another, placing the read ones on the desk so as to not jumble or re-read the same files. It feels like ages but only minutes pass with finding no valid information and I'm on the fourth file when I ask,

"How are you even that sure that it'd be a suicide war? For all you know, my army might win against Layla's." My eyes remain focused on the names but I could sense Zander stop flipping the pages and gaze up at me.

"What do you even know about Layla's army?" He asks ever so calmly.

I furrow my brows, "Even if I don't-"

He cuts me off before I can continue, "Do you know their army count? Do you know what type of creatures she'd abducted in the last few years? You know about the nymphs. But people getting abducted are happening in all of the five kingdoms. There's no saying that all of them are caused by the slave establishments running in secret. Can you be sure that Layla hadn't abducted other species? Can you be sure that you have defense mechanisms against all of them?"

My eyes snap up from the file to look at him, my mouth gaping open like a fish. I knew it wouldn't be so easy to go warring without any solid clue of Layla's army structure but. . .

"When you decide to do a war, you have to know about the enemy army's count, their fight techniques, their tricks. You have to send spies to research all of them so that you can prepare well against their strikes and not be caught off-guard in a surprise attack move or end up risking your army's lives. You can't win or be prepared when you don't even have a damn clue about your enemy, Marilla." He states firmly, his eyes straining back to the page he'd been reading.

His knowledge of war strategy was. . .impressive. And if I'm being honest, I hadn't expected that of him.

Every passing day he proves to be more surprising than the other. To think how well he acted a no-good when he actually knew many things was-

"You're dead." Zander says all of a sudden, frowning down at the file in his hand.

I roll my eyes, "You already explained why it'd be a suicide war. You don't have to enucia-"

"No no, that's not what I meant." He glances back up at me before gesturing to walk towards him.

I do so with a raise of my brow.

"Look at this." He points to a place on the file in his hand.

My eyes trace over the text where his finger pointed only for them to widen, "What the-"

"I know right." Zander agrees to my partial cursing, "It was hidden among the pages in this record book."

My eyes google over the line again and again and then again.

'Marilla Shellock : Declared dead at 16:00 hours.'

What in the zombie land-

"I'm dead?" I ask dumbfoundedly, glancing down at myself as if I'd become a foam form of a ghost out of nowhere.

Zander follows my gaze and a smirk etches onto his lips, "A sexy ghost, atleast."

"I'm serious." I roll my eyes before taking the file from Zander's hands and taking a seat on the table where the other files were kept.

I scan the death certificate for the nth time, still in disbelief, "This doesn't make sense."

"How old were you according to the year stated there?" He gestures at the file.

"This is centuries ago. I should be about two years old then?" I mumble in wonder, "But why would someone make a fake death certificate? I'm very much alive here."

Zander hums along before walking over to me. My attention wavers for the slightest bit when he leans over my shoulder to take a peek of the file in my hands, his chin rest gently on my shoulder, his cheek almost brushing against mine and his breath faning over the side of my neck.

"Did something happen to you when you were two?" He asks placing a hand on my shoulder to have a better look at the record.

"I don't think so. Besides, I was just two and it was ages ago, I wouldn't really remember-" My words come to an abrupt stop as Zander's fingers idly trail over the side of my neck, the place he had. . .

"This hickey," His whispers into my ear making a sweep over the purplish mark I'd been glaring at in the morning, "Looks fruity on your skin."

I could almost hear the smirk in his voice which made my eyes narrow with annoyance. Damn right. I'd been furious about it in the morning. How could I forget?!

"How dare you bruise my skin and call it 'fruity'?!"

Ignoring my blatant threat, "How did you get this mark though? I'd noticed it yesterday too. It looks like fangs. But different and....old." His thumb trails down towards the edge of my shoulder blades which was somehow exposed.

My brows furrow as I wonder how he noticed that mark, "That-"

Before I can finish the words though, his palm covers my mouth.

With wide frustrated eyes, I glance over at Zander from the corner of my eyes. He places a finger to his lips gesturing me to stay quite.

Frowning, I nod.

He takes his hand off my mouth and grabs my hand. Ignoring the tingling sparks at the skin contact, I let him guide me to a corner of the store room and that's when I hear.

Faint. Very faint but sure footsteps approaching. And the very familiar knick-knack of the heels gave away who it was.

In alarm, I turn to Zander with an alert look, "It's Ursula." I whisper low enough that the approaching mermaid wouldn't hear.

Zander looked like he wanted to curse out bad. But refrains himself.

"We'll teleport back, okay?" He asks softly, gripping my hand tighter.

I almost nod when my sight falls to the scattered files on the table.

"No. We can't without cleaning that up." I murmur in a hushed tone.

Zander's face takes on a bland look, "This is really not the time for caring about cleanliness."

I pass him a blander look than his, "That's not what I care about. If Ursula sees that, she'll figure out someone was in here and she'll ask the trackers to sniff the scents off the files and then whatever hiding plan of mine is going on, will go down the drain. Also," I point to the file we'd been staring at for ages earlier, "We can't leave that fake death certificate here for her to find out without knowing ourselves what it means or who hid it here."

"The fuck do we do then? To not get caught and for her to not spot the files?" Zander runs a frustrated hand through his hair. For a moment those hair brush away from his forhead and I can see those dark eyes clearly but then he shakes his head and they fall messily over his forhead again.

Ugh. What would it take for him to just brush them off his eyes for a teeny while?

My state of staring or glaring whatever halts the moment those footsteps grow even more closer.

Shit shit shit. Ursula's heading here.

How do we stop her from looking at the files without getting caught ourselves?!

As if hearing my thoughts,

"Listen," Zander raises my chin so I'm staring up at him. One of his arms go around my waist inching me closer to him.

I peer at him in confusion.

"I'll do something which might help us. But promise me you won't kill me later." He seems deadly serious and for a moment, it almost has me grinning at the terror I inflict over him. Almost.

"Do whatever you want, Zaddy. I just don't want to not be part of a 'suicide war' so very soon or don't want people figuring out I'm a 'sexy ghost' yet." I joke with a small teasing smile.

His eyes twinkle with amusement and even in the dark, I could see the coy smile on his lips, "Zaddy? Sounds like Da-"

We freeze as sound of footsteps now seem deathly close and then stops. As if they're right outside the store room door.

My heart spikes up and Zander's arms grab my hips as he lifts me off the ground.

"Wrap your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist." He instructs lifting me higher.

I stare in shock, "What?"

"Just trust me, fishy." He says softly, guiding one of my legs around his mid-section.

Maybe it was the soft request in his tone or maybe I was just stupid because the next moment, I find myself obliging with an exaggerated huff.

The flimsy material of the robe I hadn't cared changing from due to my laziness, slides up my legs revealing more bare skin than I'd like as I hook both my legs around his waist. My arms go next, clinging to his neck which makes our upper bodies press up against each other's too closely.

For a second, my mind goes blank as I register the strange position we're in but I don't get much time to dwell on it.

The sound of the door handle wiggling is heard and before I can fret about Ursula, before I can do or even think anything,

Zander turns us around in one quick movement making my back press against the shelves.

And then his lips are on mine.