It had been a week and Simone’s wounds finally healed all the way thanks to the resonance and Leilah’s talent. Leilah was getting back into the swing of working since she had the girls. They had delayed her going back to work so she could have personal time with both Piper and Nyssa. Simone was loving having the babies around. It might be a while before Lewis and Simone had their own so she had shown Lewis how to hold the girls. Gentle and caring she helped Leilah as an experienced mother, Leilah was thankful for it.

“Lewis,” Simone looked up to him while they were eating dinner all together. “Can I go to Adeluna tomorrow?” Raile, Leilah, Rhenakos, Osiria, and Kalina all spit their food out choking.

“ARE YOU INSANE?!” Kalina was the first one to yell. The rest were soon to follow but Lewis despite how quiet he was compared to the others was the one who spoke loudest. He was shaking his head.

“What if I took one of the house help? Like Jonathan who takes care of the dock. He is muscular… Would that make you feel better? PLEASE, I need to go get the gift I left there.” Simone’s gray eyes had an unusual amount of pleading.

“No, I don’t trust anyone besides myself,” Lewis said dryly.

Kalina rolled her eyes back and forth, “I’ll take her. I got nothing better to do tomorrow.”

Lewis thought for a few moments and made a face, “Fine, but only because I know you can crush someone with your bare hands.” Simone was almost bouncing in her seat with excitement.

“Thank you!” Simone launched herself onto her husband who made a face but sighed.

“I don’t understand what matters so much to you in Adeluna,” Lewis looked exhausted but shrugged.

“You’ll find out!”

So Kalina and Simone set out for Adeluna’s noble district. “So… What did you get Lewis that you are so excited over,” Kalina didn’t bother to dress up for Simone did. If anyone asked she was the woman’s bodyguard.

“I bought him some specially enchanted daggers. I thought they were a perfect first year anniversary present for us but in the commotion, they got lost. I’m hoping that maybe they got returned to the blacksmith because of his mark. His wares are famous here.”

Kalina gave her a look, “Simone, the first year anniversary is paper…”

“Since when do Lewis and I follow tradition?” The lady of the house smirked up at Kali who just chuckled.

“You two are special.”

They got to Jameson’s smithy and Kalina opened the door for Simone. The door let a ring out but Simone stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the back of someone she knew very well.

The man who was there hadn’t looked at her, “Don’t ignore me. I want to know about the woman.” Jameson looked at Simone and nodded.

“Mrs. Terrowin! I was really worried about you,” Jameson said happily enough. “This fine gentleman was just looking for you but I wasn’t sure if I should tell him.”

“I did tell you my husband is good at what he does~” Simone watched as the man turned and looked at her. His gray eyes got huge as he looked at her.

The man started to approach Simone as if he were living a dream and Kalina immediately got defenseless as she got in the middle of them. “It’s alright Kalina. He won’t hurt me,” Simone said it dryly as Kalina got out of the way. It was nerve-wracking for Kalina to see someone who looked like Simone. She didn’t have any family alive, that’s what Simone had told them but this man…

“I thought you were dead,” the man’s words were shaky as were his hands as he cupped Simone’s face. “That night… I thought. Simone,” he hugged her tightly but Simone had a straight face as her lips pursed. Kalina saw as Simone reached over to the wall grabbing one of the heavy clubs.

“Felix,” Simone said lightly, “How are you still alive?”

Immediately Felix jolted as he realized his mistake, “Simone I can expla–” There was no time as Simone bashed his head with the club knocking him out.

“I’ll buy this club~ Did you happen to get my husband’s daggers.” Simone picked up her skirts and stepped over Felix’s body.

“Actually, believe or not I did. I got a bad feeling and had followed the rumors of your girl running. It was too late by the time I got there both of you were gone.” He brought up the basket and Simone took it gingerly. “Don’t worry about the club. He’s been in here every day for a week. Just get him out of here.”

“Kalina, we’re taking Felix home with us,” Simone finished speaking as the portal blew up in a dark fire. “I’m going to ask you, Mr. Jameson, not to say I can do this.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it after the mess your husband made looking for you~” The look in his eyes told Simone that he had an idea that Simone wasn’t completely truthful about what Lewis did. However, for cleaning up the trash he wasn’t about to out them.

“Have a good day Mr. Jameson,” Simone smiled and took Felix up to her room. She tied him to her vanity chair. “Kali~ Can you fetch the wood boy? Have him bring up all the axes for the firewood.”

“Do I want to be here for this?”

“I might have to pay you to fix the house,” Simone looked at Kali. “Lewis will be home later today~”

“I’ll stop by tomorrow,” Kali wasn’t about to be here for this blood bath as she sent up the wood boy with the axes. Good thing he was almost fifteen but she doubted that Simone would torture the guy with the boy there.

By the time Felix woke up she was slapping the palm of her hand with the side of the axe glaring at him. “Simone, please I can explain.”

“Let’s play a game. Let’s see how resilient you are. Let’s see if being stubborn and a survivor is an Auclair family trait… My dear cousin.” The color drained from Felix’s face.

“I don’t know anything Simone,” he was sweating badly as she cornered him like a rat.

“I smell a lie,” She sent the axe through the table next to her. “You might find that I am much more prone to violence than I used to be.” Carefully, she used the axe to free him as Felix got up and tried to run from her.

She chased him through the house axing down doors. Every once in awhile the axe would go flying and the wood boy gave her another one. “OH FELIX!” Simone screamed as she chased him. IT was weird seeing her all dressed up with the axe. It was an off-shoulder dress that had a tan bust embroidered with floral with a dark green skirt that poofed out thanks to the petty coat under it. Her hair was swept up in an elegant bun.

Felix would let out cries as he tried to navigate Terrowin Castle. The pissed off lady of the castle was following him closely behind even if she had heels on.

Dala showed up right on time as usual and the butler greeted her, “Good morning Princess Dala, the missus is currently busy with an unruly guest~” The screams got closer as Felix fled her and fell down the stairs. Simone followed carefully as Felix fell down the stairs and started to crawl towards the door.

“I SWEAR TO GOD SIMONE I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT THE FEY LORD WAS GOING TO DO TO YOU,” Felix threw up his hands as Simone got over top of him and sent one of hers into his arm. He let out a howl.

“I remember very clearly someone telling me when we were ten that he would protect me,” Simone was filled with murderous intent. “And that someone cowered under a goddamn bush as I was tortured and raped by a fey lord instead of trying to save me. NOW, Felix my dearest cousi–”

“SIMONE, I love you please don’t hurt me. If I thought I could have saved you I would have. It was chaos. Everyone was dying around us.”

“Everyone in Auclair died but the one rat under a bush~ Tell me, Felix, how does that look?” Simone’s eyes narrowed down on him. “Also, the fact you look still as young as that day… Hmm… Should I show you how much I love you?” She readied the axe to bring it down and the butler interrupted. “Oh! Dala!” Her attitude changed dramatically. “I’m so sorry my dear. My cousin is here to visit and I just thought I would give him the best welcoming I could~ Isn’t that right Felix? We’re having a friendly visit.”

She sent her heel back into him and he screamed, “YES, YES we’re just having a friendly visit!”

The days had passed since Simone's kidnapping. Dala had been gone for the majority of the week. She had been spending her time at the temple, focusing on her studies since she couldn't go out adventuring with her old injuries, even if they were taken care of. Her parents were very upset when they saw her arms and had instructed her to NEVER use magic like that again, which was reasonable. Fortunately, her mom was a fantastic healer with both her magic and with natural remedies. Her arms had scabs/old healing wounds still and possibly could scar, of course her mother could fix the scars as well but the natural healing time was still important. Dala was allowed to go and visit the island and had gone through that door to the island.

Dala was wearing a light blue dress with a white apron tied around her waist. She'd been helping her mother earlier in the garden and was too lazy to change. Her hair was in braids and she had a backpack on filled with books and supplies. The child arrived and a butler greeted her politely explaining Simone was busy with a….guest. The screams became louder and Dala peaked behind the butler to see a man crawling towards the door with Simone chasing after him with an axe. This…..was normal for Simone. Dala gave her a wave.

"Yeah. Friendly. Sure." She said with a shrug as she went over towards Simone, "Well if there's anything left to bury at least give him a nice grave. Cemeteries are cool. And who knows, maybe you can interrogate a ghost?"

Dala then hopped onto a chair and went through her backpack, not even giving Felix another glance. She was about to get her homework when she suddenly had an idea. The child yanked out a spray bottle with a pale yellow liquid and black specks.

"Hey mind if I test this spray on him? Its got lemon juice and pepper." She explained, "In case I get into trouble, I can spray this into people's eyes."

Felix was… terrified by the child’s response, “Come on Simone… You aren’t going to involve a child are you?”

“Oh, you know… Funny thing about that. I was only a child when the Fey Lord started his bullshit,” she let it out as a growl as she let him go. “Sure, Dala but please make sure not to ruin his vocal cords ~ I need to find out what he knows~”

She smiled towards the child and did an ‘after you’ motion. Felix was screaming more as he tried to find a way out of the castle but the castle help kept blocking him in. If he had something to do with the Lady of the Castle’s bad history they wanted him to get karma. Simone had hidden nothing from them and the details terrified them.

“Simone, please you know me. I wanted to marry you and I wanted to protect you,” Felix was begging Simone and her face twisted just a bit as he continued on.

“Dala, you’ve been practicing more of your fighting moves right? Go ahead and test them out on Felix~”

“SIMONE! You are being unreasonable.”

“NO, I am not. For almost two thousand years I’ve been alive on this earth. Most of that being abused by an obsessive fey lord who wanted me to give him a child. And now my cousin who I loved with all of my heart is still here? Do you know what that says? That you had something to do with what happened to me. Do you understand the betrayal that I am feeling right now Felix?!” There was anger and hurt in her voice. “I am being perfectly reasonable. Being unreasonable would have been killing you right on the god damn spot. NOW start talking before Lewis gets home and makes you talk.”

“Who the fuck is Lewis?” Felix was dealing with Dala but he didn’t dare hurt the girl because Simone was already pissed off.

“Your worst fucking nightmare if you don’t start talking!”

Dala, excited by this new playtime, rushed over with her spray bottle and went right for the eyes. She sprayed the mixture of lemon and pepper spray directly into his eyes. She would judge how effective it was by how much pain he was going through. She rushed back to her bag and put the spray bottle away while this Felix guy was claiming how he wanted to marry her and was going to protect her. The fact they were cousins made that statement even worse. Then Simone suggested Dala used her fighting moves on him. She decided to go with hand to hand combat, since stabbing him would be a quick and easy way out of whatever Simone had planned.

Dala ended up practicing some moves on him. The kick the dick move was the first one she used. It was only useful for guys though. So after kicking him in the dick, she around to his backside and jumped onto his shoulders, making him fall into the ground. Then, with a tight grip on his head, she began slamming his head into the ground repeatedly.

"Am I doing this right Simone?" She asked.

Dala had to make sure her form was correct. The last thing the kid wanted was to have a lazy or improper technique. The kid then grabbed his arm and chomped down hard on it. Her teeth were sharp and she wasn't holding back. Her goal was to see how badly she could mess someone up if she had the chance. The world outside was wild and dangerous so it was good to know how wild and dangerous she could get for her own survival. But it was also getting boring so she hopped off the man.

"He's boring. All he does is scream." She said with a sigh, "I'm gonna get back to homework."

She then looked over to Simone.

"Once you're done with him, I'd like to ask a question about noble ranks." Dala said.

Simone watched Dala and nodded, “Yes, but if you have heels you need to do it with the heel.” She showed Dala by demonstrating on Felix who let out even more of a scream than he did when Dala did it. “It also works on women even though they don’t have dicks. But you have to do it really hard.” She was educating Dala on self-defense. “The rest of it was all flawless!”

Felix was seeing stars and he was left at the hands of his abusers, one of which was a ten-year-old. He never thought he would see the day.

“I have time right now,” Simone came over and lovingly answered all of Dala’s questions. Once she was done she got another axe and patted Dala on her head. “Once Lewis is home we’re going to make this a whole damn thing. I would suggest going home and coming back tomorrow. I’ll make up for it all I swear.”

That was when Simone started to go after Felix again, “OH FELIX!” There was a terrified cry as he realized the hunt was back on. She crashed into the parlor and began to hack at the seats to get to Felix.

When Lewis entered the house the butler perked up, “Master Lewis the Missus is currently… in the parlor with a guest.” There was screaming and crashing. “Scratch that Master… The Missus is now in the library.”

“FELIX, WHERE DID YOU GO?!”

"SIMONE, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS STOP."

The butler looked at Lewis and bowed, "She is in an upset mood today, Master."

Lewis gave a blank stare at the whole situation when he walked in. The absolute chaos that was happening was a surprise, to be sure, but the fact that everyone was taking it so well meant that Lewis didn’t have anything to be worried about. So, per his usual routine, he made his way upstairs and to the room to get changed. As he came out wearing his usual casual attire, a black shirt and pants, he started back down the hall.

From around the corner, a terrified man who looked oddly like Simone came scrambling up to Lewis, grabbing him roughly by the collar.

“PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS, YOU HAVE TO SAVE ME!” he yelled, shaking Lewis. The assassin stared at the man blankly, and then looked past him as Simone came strolling around the corner with a twisted smile and maddening look about her face. The moment she saw Lewis, however, the expression changed.

“Oh! Lewis! You’re home! Did you have a good day?” It was like a switch had been flipped.

Felix paled. “Y-you’re…Lewis…?”

Lewis shoved the man back, causing him to fall to the ground. “It wasn’t a terrible day. Though I am curious as to why there's a pest problem in the house. I would have thought you more capable of handling these things…do we need to have another lesson in hunting?”

Felix scrambled back up, terrified. There would be no escape.

It had always been like a switch for her to go from murder to love. Perhaps because her many personalities before they became one gave her much practice. She knew when to be loving and she knew when to be pissed. There she frowned a bit with a pout when Lewis scolded her she knew he would understand. She rounded Felix ignoring him entirely and wrapped herself around Lewis.

“You see~ I went to Adeluna to pick up your surprise for our anniversary when I found someone asking questions about me. The blacksmith had done well enough not to tell him anything so color me surprised when I saw the man’s face.” She looked down to Lewis.

“Lewis, this is my cousin Felix. Now, don’t you think it’s odd that he is still alive and young just like me? That he looks almost as old as he was when I was raped and killed by the Fey Lord.” Felix’s color drained as he realized that Lewis probably knew everything about Simone.

“Felix said that he would always love and protect me… The night that Fey Lord burned down Auclair… He was under the bush watching the whole time. I was so scared and I had forgotten that fact until I saw his face at the shop.”

Felix stuttered, “Please, Simone none of us could stand up to the Fey Lord. I didn’t want to die.”

“Funny, because I thought you were smiling under that bush,” Simone’s gaze was murderous again.

“It had to be the trauma the lord was putting you through I swear! I would never be happy about that no matter if I was upset at your fathe–”

Simone’s frown grew even more. “So… You were upset at my father. Lewis, you heard him. He had motive… Let’s find out what else he knows.”

“Oh?” Lewis said as he looked between the two. “Oh! I understand now…” He clapped his hands together. “My dearest Simone, I see why you’ve taken so long. You’re going about this the entirely wrong way…” The assassin pulled out a dagger from his leg sheath, and started to toss it in the air. “You want information…” He kicked Felix back down and threw the dagger between the man’s legs, narrowly missing the important bits.

“You see…right now, he’s under a certain impression,” he said as he knelt down in front of the poor fellow. “That you’re mad at him. Which…to be fair, you probably are.” There was a rising emotion to Lewis’ voice, something close to ecstasy. “But that’s the problem. He won’t talk because he’s trying to appease you…” Lewis took hold of the dagger’s hilt, gripping it tightly, locking eyes with the man. “He’ll do anything to make you stop from an emotional aspect…”

Felix was shaking, “Whatever it is…I’ll tell you…just don’t-”

“Shut up,” Lewis said as he pulled the dagger up and slammed it back down. Felix shook as the blade hit the wooden floors again. “I know you’ll say whatever you think will let you off the hook…” The assassin smirked. “But what will you tell him?” From around the corner, a tall man with brown hair and piercing, silver eyes. The aura that exuded him was strength, and he walked with purpose up behind Lewis.

“Well…go on…speak,” the fae lord commanded.

Simone crossed her arms and smirked a bit, “My love has all the answers.” She watched as Lewis began the task of getting her what she wanted. “I suppose I was stuck in a daydream of trying to find out if he is much like me. Is it an Auclair family trait to be a survivor or am I just stronger than he is?”

There was a frown on Simone’s face, “Does that mean that he thinks I’m weak my love?” That he could appease her with mere words. Did that mean he didn’t respect her enough and that he could trick her?

When the fey lord rounded the corner Felix’s face lit up. “You have to save me but more importantly. Our half of the deal right?” He was breaking and it was easy for Simone to see as she instinctively picked up one of her axes. “You promised me Simone when you were done. You promised me.”

Her frown grew. That was the deal? She was going to be passed around like some sex slave? “You disappoint me, Felix. You disappoint me greatly. Your want for me never died did it?” There was venom in those sweet words.

“Come on now! KILL THEM! You did it once! Granted you fucked us over but still, you were going to give me Simone. That’s all that mattered to me!” Felix was losing his shit but he hadn’t realized what he was seeing was fake.

"And now it goes from just him to us… Great, I have a group of betrayers."

Lewis smirked as he made Felix’s head spin. This new magic he had been learning had come quite in handy lately, making people see a variety of their worst fears. It was a fantastic way to get information, and just like that, he spilled the key words they needed to start. But the night wasn’t over…

“Simone…did Kali ever finish renovating the east wing basement?” Lewis asked as he stood up, grabbing a fistful of Felix’s hair.

“I do believe she did. And we’ve already had most of the tools brought down…” She liked where this was going. It was going to be another long, fun night for them. “I really do need to watch myself though. I can’t keep doing these all night playtimes…A woman needs her beauty rest…”

Lewis pulled Felix along, dragging him to the stairs, and shoved him down, watching him tumble. “Oh, but my dearest Simone…” He gave her a wild look. “I’ll make it worth your time.” The two descended together with their arms locked, stepping into Felix as they got to his body, dragging it along as they brought him to their little private torture chamber.

The poor delusional man was still ranting and raving about how the fae lord betrayed him, and how they had a deal, and what things he wanted to do with Simone.

“It’s quite disgusting really,” Lewis said as he tied him to a chair firmly. “Let’s break the spell then…shall we? What first…?”