xvi

Ophelia stopped counting when she hit hour 25. It kept her thoughts from roaming and helped her stay awake. She refused any food that was brought to her and refused to say a word to anyone. Word got around, which angered Perseus. Yuki got to her first.

"How're you holding up?" Yuki asked. Her lip was busted and her cheekbone was bruised. Ophelia scooted back to the corner of the bed. "I'm not here to hurt you." Yuki scoffed, walking to sit on the edge of the bed.

'What happened?" Ophelia croaked, tilting her chin towards Yuki's face. Yuki gently touched her bruised cheek and shrugged. "Got into a fight."

Ophelia looked down at her arm where the needle was taped into. "You need to eat. The transformation's not going to be easy on your body. Quite frankly, I don't want to see you die, even if we never become more than enemies."

Yuki held out a white cloth that had a closed bowl of soup in it. "I figured it'll be easier on your stomach since you haven't eaten anything for over a day."

Ophelia gingerly took the bowl and looked up at Yuki before slowly opening it and bringing the edge up to her mouth. She took a sip and brought it down, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Thank you, Yuki." Ophelia said, closing the soup and setting it to the side. She moved forward to sit beside her. "You didn't deserve that." Ophelia gestured to the busted lip and bruised cheek.

Yuki looked down. "I did. I shouldn't have let my emotions run wild." "No. I get why you did. Someone you barely know comes in and makes the love of your life fall in love with them sucks," Ophelia said, looking at Yuki. "You didn't deserve it. You don't deserve to be the villain."

Yuki sighed. "But I am. I always will be. In every story, I am the villain."

---

"We have a location." The captain of the guards bowed. Abraxas and Caspian have barely slept since Ophelia had been taken. They managed to sneak people inside and now had intel.

"Where is it?" Caspian asked, hope blossoming in his chest. "It's the abandoned coal factory on the other side of the woods." The captain responded, moving to point on the map where it was.

"If we leave soon, we can get there by midday." Abraxas responded, hand covering his mouth. Caspian looked at Abraxas before looking back down to the map. "You are certain that she's here?" The captain nodded. "Absolutely."

"Get the guards, ready the horses, let's get moving!" Caspian commanded, standing up and watching the captain salute and turn, heading to complete his task. Abraxas walked to the other side of the table and looked down at the map once more.

"We have to save her. I won't let her be used for Perseus' transformation." Abraxas said, Looking up and crossing his arms. "I know," Caspian said, rolling up the map and turning to leave. "We're going to need you there." Abraxas nodded.

"Of course I'm going." Abraxas walked out of the study and headed towards his room while Caspian turned right to get the guards ready for the fight.

"We must be ready to lay down our lives for the princess!" Caspian said while everyone was waiting to start towards the factory. Soldiers stood at attention while Caspian and Abraxs rode down the middle row. "You are going in here with as much information that we have. Nothing has been held from any of you."

"Now, if we're ready, let's march!" Abraxas called, turning his horse to lead the soldiers while Caspian took the back.

---

"What do you mean "they're coming"?" Perseus growled, glaring at one of the large men he had with him the night he had first attempted to take Ophelia. "A group of our scouts spotted them about 10 miles out. They ran here as fast as they could." The large man rubbed his elbow and Perseus stood up.

"Get the ritual ready." Perseus growled, walking out of the room and towards the room Ophelia was in. "Has she been put on the sedative?" He asked the doctor, who nodded. "She's been on it all morning."

Yuki sashayed up to Perseus. "Everything alright?" She asked, boredom laced her voice. Perseus nodded before telling the doctor to get Ophelia ready to go. He then turned to Yuki. "Whatever you do, do not let anybody near Ophelia or I. Am I understood?" Perseus gripped Yuki's wrist tightly.

Yuki winced in pain but nodded. "Yes, my dear." "Good." Perseus reaches up and pats Yuki lightly on her cheek before turning and leaving the room. Yuki looks down at her wrist, rubbing it lightly before looking back up as the doctor carries Ophelia from the room and put her in an old wheelchair.

"You might want to hurry up and bring her to the ritual site. I wouldn't want to keep Perseus waiting." Yuki batted her eyelashes and turned, walking out of the room while Ophelia's head fell backwards.

She blinked lazily up at the doctor. "You'll... you will," Ophelia gulped. "Pay for doing this." The doctor just ignored her and continued to walk down a seemingly long corridor before turning her around and backing into the large room at the end.

The doctor stopped just inside of the room when he helped Ophelia stand up.

"Welcome to our guest of honor!" Perseus called out, holding his hands up. The doctor walked Ophelia up onto the platform as everyone had started to calm down and sat her onto the chair provided. He turned and left as Perseus leaned and grabbed the knife. Someone walked into the room, holding a dark wooden box with silver corner protectors.

They walked slowly, the sound of their shoes hitting the worn tiled floor. Ophelia tried to look but Perseus reached over and grabbed her jaw and turned her head to face him. "Keep your eyes on me." He growled out.

The woman - as Ophelia was finally able to see who was walking - made her way up the steps and slowly opened the box as if to not hurt whatever's inside. Ophelia looked to the box to see a simple goblet. The cup itself was glass but the stem seemed to be wrapped in tree bark and painted black with rubies encrusted here and there.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the moment we've all been waiting for." Perseus said as he set the cup onto the table behind him. He unsheathed the knife and drug it across his hand, cupping it so the blood wouldn't hit the cup just yet.

"The moment we've all been waiting for." He murmured to himself and dumped the blood into the goblet.

Ophelia wanted nothing more than to leave, to go back to the castle and apologize to her dad for being difficult. Anything was better than this, even dealing with Bora.

Once the goblet was filled halfway with his blood, Perseus wrapped a bandage around his hand and picked the goblet up, turning to face Ophelia. "Drink this, my dear."

When Ophelia didn't reach to grab the goblet, he started getting angry. "Ophelia, take it. I know you can grab things, you just can't walk on your own."

The pounding - which wasn't heard before - became impossible to ignore. Ophelia looked over towards the door, seeing that everyone else was, too. It was rattling on its hinges and seemed like, at any given moment, it would fly off of them.

Which is exactly what happened. Yuki flew back into the chapel and rolled a few across the floor before standing up and crouching, almost like a panther, and pounced back into the fight.

Soldiers from the castle poured into the chapel, causing Perseus to growl in annoyance. Abraxas and Caspian burst into the room, seeing that there were more people on Perseus' side than they anticipated.

Ophelia tried to call out Caspian's name, but knew she wouldn't be heard over the commotion, but - as if by luck - Caspian looked up and saw her. "Get away from her!" He yelled, trying to run through the multitude of people.

"Hold them back!" Perseus commanded and watched as the people formed a wall around them. Caspian and Abraxas were at the front of the crowd, trying to push through. It was no use.

"Open your mouth, Darling." Perseus said, bringing the cup towards her. Ophelia shook her head and kept her mouth closed. Quickly, Perseus grew annoyed and pried her jaw open and dumped the blood down her throat.

It was horrible. It tasted metallic and rolled thickly down her throat. Ophelia coughed, splaying blood onto her dress and all over Perseus' front. That wouldn't ruin his good mood.

That was, until Caspian broke through.