"What?!" I looked back at Calliope and got the same look from her as well. "They're an illusion, but that spell is real. It-" She inhaled and her lashes flattered. I looked back at the house. Behind the gates stood dozens of Khan's men with him in front of them all and stared back at the witches with the same shock as all of us. "It will explode, we need to-" She lost her voice once more. "Basil can be used as an explosive when used with dark magic. We need to get back." My ears were already buzzing, but in that moment, everything went silent. My mind cleared blank and I stared back at the house.. I stared breathlessly at the familiar figure on the porch.. She- goodness, my Lana.. She was there. And even from far I could see that dread on her face.. I heard her say something.. She stared at the group of her men, dozens and dozens lined in front of her, and she yelled something out. She told them something. But something snapped inside me, like it was me she yelled at.. My heart fell to the pit of my stomach and my body moved on its own. All I knew.. Hell, all I knew was that I had to get close. I had to- Christ, I had to get to her. The last thing I heard was my brother yell out after me, and the last thing I saw was Amelia kneeling down and murmuring some spell.. While I ran. I ran and left them behind where they were safe.. But I needed her. Lana.. Goodness, I needed her more than I needed anything. I ran with speed of the wind and noticed the grass clearing out, perhaps from Amelia's spell, clearing out the basil and making me a small clear path.. But it did not matter. I just knew that I was running and not giving a damn that Khan's army rushed towards the witches through the gates only a second after I made my way on the property.. I had no clue how in that whole speed I noticed Lana snatching away from her mother, rushing down the porch steps, but I managed to reach the front yard and damn me if I know how. Yes, the witches were all just illusions, only the first three of them were real, but just like Calliope said, the dark magic they preformed was all happening in that very moment. I heard Lana's yells and in all that senselessness, I felt as if my heart was torn into thousands of pieces from the sharp screech of fear in that voice.. In that soft voice that held nothing but panic. And at that point, perhaps I saw my own death before my eyes, but cared not even slightly because hell, all that mattered was her.. I don't think she even noticed me until she nearly crashed against me.. And I felt her small body nearly fall over my arm as I reached it to stop her and pulled her against myself.. Khan and his man ran, but Lana couldn't stop them. They exited their gates and I knew what was to come next. "No!" She repeated, "Stop!" But I don't think she was aware through all those yells.. No, she had no clue who had just caught her.. But she struggled fiercely to snatch away from me as well.. "Irascitur." A simple word. Fire, it meant. A simple word said in the same voice of a hundred, when it was only three witches that said it. And it was all a trick. My eyes closed that very instant. My jaw was nearly as clenched as to grind my teeth with the thought of what she was about to witness. And I felt no relief, but rather even bigger need to put her away from the scene that was about to happen before her eyes. Once again, my body was controlled by my instincts.. I moved with speed and pushed her back, rushing her towards the house with me and pinning her against the door. The sound of fire suddenly rushing and flaming up in the air was heard. I covered the sight with my body.. I couldn't allow her see dozens from her pack burn alongside her father.. Her brothers too. I looked at eyes of nothing but fear and panic, the darkest shade of green swirling together with some begging I understood so well.. But they didn't look back at mine.. Almost as if she still wasn't aware of my presence.. Instead, she tried looking over my shoulder. I took her face in my hands and leaned towards her, trapping her with my body and doing my best to keep her shielded.. Doing all in my power to prevent her from seeing the flames that rose so high behind me, I almost felt the heat. But it all happened behind the gates.. It all happened away from the house, thankfully away from my Lana and the few that still hadn't left the property.. The basil that surrounded the house for protection from us, their vampire enemies, was now the very key that those witches used to light up with magic.. To use their own secret weapon and kill them all with it. A tragedy that happened within minutes.. That very fire could've taken my Lana away from me. And I felt weak and nearly shaking with the simple thought of that. Yet I felt relief.. I felt relief because I had her shielded and trapped away from that danger that took the lives of many.. I had her in my arms, feeling her panting breaths almost against mine, even though those dreaded eyes still partly saw what happened behind me.. Still saw the flames that rushed up in the air like fire with gasoline.. I could see those flames in her eyes. I could see them reflected in those crystal emeralds that seemed glassy in that moment.. I held her face in my hands and felt her silky skin underneath my fingers, watching how her lips remained parted as she was left speechless and still staring somewhere over my shoulder.. At the fire that raised high in the dark sky. Screeches and yells, no's and pleads were heard when the rest that realized that dozens of theirs had lost their lives in that fire. Yet Lana remained silent. "Lana," I moved my hand against the wall behind her, trapping her some more and feeling how her hands so weakly slid down my chest. I didn't dare to move or look behind myself as I tried my best to be the very barricade that would provide her the sight of that. "Lana, look at me.." She didn't, not even when I took her chin between my fingers, but from her slight flinch, I knew she had noticed me.. "Eyes on me." And then she did exactly that. So slowly, without a single blink, she looked at me, and my chest tightened. Eyes of shock and coldness; such a mix of emotions that darkened them, made them almost unrecognizable to me.. But it was still my Lana that hid behind that cold stare of those emerald crystals, glossy with tears.. Not a blink, not a single trace of fear no more. Instead it was the kind of weakness that tore my heart into a thousand pieces and a single tear that seemed like my very ruin. Her chest fell in a breath that escaped her, and I once again reacted by my very instincts. I pulled her close. I pulled her in my arms without a single word. Her warmness soothed me.. Hell, her simple presence gave me relief.. But the faintness in her simple moves broke me in pieces. And all I knew was that I had to hold her close.. Against my chest and in my arms, where she was safest. Where she belonged.