Returning from the woods, Lord Knight was not himself after he understood the depth of the problem. He along with Lyndon, Xavier, Gode, Lucy and sometimes along with Madonna tried many things to break the magic but nothing helped.

In the next three weeks, while Xander was busy with his wife, trying to save her from impending death, Xavier and Lyndon succeeded to get proof that indeed Knox Garrick was the person behind attacking Ella.

It was also found out that the whole town of Shadowvalor was supporting him in the wrong deed. It later came into light that the deadly venom was made by the town members themselves and the magic was performed by Knox Garrick.

Xander was consumed by the thoughts of destruction and ordered his troop of soldiers to capture each of the Shadowvalor civilian, male or female, young or old, he ordered the whole town should be captured and imprisoned in the dungeons.

Except Knox!

The town head was clever enough to flee from the face of the town soon after he did his work. He was nowhere to seen and many troops of Lord's men were still trying to find him.

While on the other side, Ella's health deteriorated to its words. She got so skinny that the frame of her bones was visible clearly. Her lips were blue and chapped and her body temperature ran cold.

She was almost felt dead... almost if not for the faint air she was exhaling in and out. Gode has been crying profusely, cursing Knox for committing such a sin.

Gode, who had done so much to get her best friend in to the arms of the Lord was totally devastated and lost hope in retrieving her back to life. She felt useless for not being able to save her. Everything she and the Lord tried were futile and nothing was helping her.

"The witch said in not more than two days the dark magic in her body may completely consume the soul power. You know what it means, don't you?" Gode asked softly, tears running freely from her eyes, looking at the lying body of Ella.

Xander did not reply nor did he acknowledge Gode's statement. He was just sitting beside his wife with blank and dead eyes. He tried all of his powers and ability to control the spell but nothing worked. He later came to know that he has a power to shield Ella from such magic spells but only before it was performed. Once it was performed, his abilities does not work anymore.

He was leaning more over the possibility of saving her with his love like Madonna said and ordered his men to bring the holy water from all the religious places in and around the region. They tried to sprinkle holy water on Ella, poured a little in her mouth but it was like not even holy water was answer to it.

He called on the most known priests to look at her and do something to save Ella but they could only slow the consumption of the spell. Even they couldn't exterminate it from her body.

He left the castle responsibility to Lyndon while Xavier was looking over the affairs of the region while Xander was watching over his wife and spending time with her.

He begged, pleaded, ordered, threatened and warned her to wake up but like every other of his attempts, that was a fail too.

"Xander please do something. Please. There must be some other way, please think Xander. You need to save her. She saved you from mouth of death before; if it was possible for her, then why not for you?" Gode's question put Xander into a trance of thoughts.

It was true. If it was possible for Ella to bring him back from hell, then why couldn't he?

It can be done. It was just that he need to know how.

It was because of Ella's purity and kindness that helped him back to life; but Xander was not pure nor was his heart as kind as hers. He killed people ruthlessly and he was never kind to unkind people.

But... but it might work too.

What made Ella save him may work back on her. It should!

"Gode, leave. I need to spend some time alone with her." Xander ordered and immediately found Gode standing up from the chair she was previously sitting on.

"Before you go, tell Xavier to arrange a priest for tomorrow night. There will be a wedding taking place." Gode gaped at her friend's husband, speechless and what he said.

A wedding?

Whose wedding?

"What?" She asked incredulously.

"I would be wedding Ella tomorrow night. Again!" Xander stated without taking his eyes off from Ella.

Life and death cannot live together. He was certain that this wedding will resurrect her even from the hands of the very devil.

He was, for once, certain of what he was going to do. It felt right!

Gode nodded her head without further argument and left the chamber with realization knocking her thoughts.

Xander, on the other hand, lay beside Ella and kissed her forehead affectionately with tears running down his cheeks. Though he was being emotionless just a while ago, he often cried when he was with his wife. He couldn't let others see him weak and vulnerable but he couldn't help when he was alone with Ella.

"Wake up, darling. Please wake up for me." He whispered faintly, several emotions gushing out in his voice. "What would I be without you, Ella. You need to wake up for me."

Xander continued to kiss her forehead, inspecting her skinny malnutrition body. For the first time, Ella looked ugly. Ella looked beautiful even when she tumbled in dirt but this one time she looked so very ugly.

He wanted his beautiful, lively Ella back.

"We are going to wed to each other again, sweet Ella. I really hope this works to bring you back to life." He spoke lightly still not getting any response from her. Xander sighed at the silence that embraced him.

Usually, their chamber would be resonating with her giggles, with her laughter, with her moans, with her questions, everything that defies horrendous silence. Now that she is in such a dire state, everything felt hopeless to him.

"I always wanted to tell you something, Ella. But I was taking things gradually so you could get comfortable with the changes. You always asked me who I was to know so much about you; who holds so much power over you; who can wield magic like back of his hand. You had so many questions about me. You always showed tremendous interest to know about me and my past." Xander spoke softly, twirling the locks of her amber hair around his fingers.

Even her hair lost its life in those past three weeks.

"I do not know if you would really wake up after the wedding tomorrow so I want to tell you a story, darling." He said pulling her in to his arms in a comfortable warm position, rubbing his hands on her arms.

"It is a story of a bandit who had a lovely family of four, who considered the whole group of the bandits as his own family. He loved everyone of them and he can do anything for them. He was handsome, muscular, wicked and can have his way with anyone. He was so good with indulging people with words and women from in and around that area use to fancy him like he was an angel in human skin; and he use to enjoy it too." Xander chuckled lightly but the sadness was not leaving his eyes. He wanted to tell her so much, he wanted to show her so much that even a lifetime falls short.

"His name was Alexander." He sighed sadly. "Alexander Knavesmire."