Once they were out of earshot of the hunter and his companion, Margarete sprinted back towards the castle. She panicked, feeling something was wrong. Even her sons had trouble keeping up with her as she dashed and weaved through the trees. Tears threatened to fall, but she kept it together as she saw the castle walls.

Margarete swung open the door as she ran to the cellar, remembering what she had told her sons to do so long ago when someone came unexpectedly. She glided down the stairs and started to open all the doors. She had to reach Reinhold and Annalena eventually. They had to be here, or Margarete was going to do something drastic. She wondered briefly if she looked insane as she threw open the doors and yelling into them.

"Reinhold? Annalena?" Margarete called out into each room and hallway, tears streaking down her face. She was worried by the lack of response, and her heart sank. Then her son crawled out of the last room, beckoning Margarete to come closer. 

"It's Annalena," Reinhold whispered, barely holding on. He held his shoulder, a deep gash nearly severing his arm. Margarete ran towards him to check his wound, but he shook his head. "I'm going to be fine. It's Annalena. She won't wake up."

"What?" Margarete whispered as Reinhold motioned toward the inner room. He leaned against a wall as Margarete went into the room and found Annalena laying down on the ground. She had ashed skin with her eyes closed. Her chest barely moved, signaling that she was still alive. Gently, Margarete shook her shoulders, but her body was limp. If Margarete couldn't see her breathing or hear the faint beat of her heart, she would have guessed that Annalena was dead.

"I couldn't wake her up. A woman came in and attacked me. She used magic and tried to take my arm off. I think she did something to her," Reinhold informed through his teeth, feeling faint. Margarete nodded, attending to Annalena. 

After a few minutes of failing to wake Annalena, Margarete let her emotions flow, wiping her eyes. Reinhold fell asleep, his shoulder already starting to patch up. Margarete lifted Annalena up and started to take her upstairs. At the top of the stairs stood Greta, leaning against the wall. Margarete glared as she walked up and past her.

"Such a shame. She was so beautiful," Greta sighed as she started to follow Margarete. Margarete ignored her as she kept her pace. She had no time for her stepmother, who seemed to be hellbent on ruining her life.

"Why are you here?" Margarete growled as she walked to the second floor stairway. Margarete hadn't seen her stepmother in nearly two hundred years, and she had assumed that the wench was dead. I guess Greta had been keeping a secret of her own. Other than vampires, witches were the only other race that had the gift of long life. Although, Greta had to use magic to look young. Margarete never had to worry about aging.

"I want to strike a deal, for old times sake," Greta whispered as she danced around Margarete. The vampiress glared before ascending the stares. "You do have a keeper there, sweetheart. She took the poison all by herself, although she did chose the antidote than getting rid of the hunter."

"Antidote?" Margarete asked, her anger pausing for the moment as she turned to Greta, who smiled. Margarete silently wondered if she was proud or concerned about Annalena's decisions, but then decided that it didn't matter at the moment.

"Antidote is a loose term, but essentially, yes," Greta answered, briefly thinking about the side effects of the antidote. However, Margarete hardly cared about the semantics.

"Would Annalena wake up?" Margarete whispered, hopeful. Greta smiled, refraining from laughing. Margarete ignored the glee in her stepmother's face, needing to know if she could save Annalena. She was an innocent, and didn't deserve this. Margarete wondered if she should have just taken her to Stuttgart, but her heart got in the way. If Annalena ever woke up, Margarete swore that she would just take her to her new home, to safety.

"Yes, she would indeed," Greta purred as Margarete narrowed her eyes before walking to Annalena's room.