The Hunter and the Hunted ✔️

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GUYS! I made Everly's house into a 3D model (The picture) and I think it's super cool. I also made Colin's living room + bedroom so that'll be up too! I still have to make Everly's room... but I don't really know how that looks considering the book rarely takes us there? But yeah... there's her living room and most of her kitchen. I love it because I can picture Kas and Everly leaning against the dining table soaking in the sunset from that chapter all that time ago. Throwback to when he was actually alive. ANYWAYS you guys have a good day.

We were running so hard even I was failing to have energy. Colin was breathing quickly, Sophia in his arms wrapped up tightly. Witches felt the cold and so did children.

I shook my head as Colin stopped, leaning up against a tree. "I can't... Everly can we stop?" He gulped down air. "We ran seven miles in the time it takes a fast person to run two. Can we please quit?" I took a deep breath and watched him slide down the tree. "I'm not like you. I tire easier. Plus I'm carrying Sophia and..."

"Colin... it's fine. I get it." I got it but that didn't mean I was happy about it. We had to keep moving, keep pushing. Konrad would catch us at this pace. Becker would catch us. Magic would find us. I wanted to make it as much of a struggle as I could for them.

I sat down in the snow, hating how my nose ran from the exercise in the cold. Becker betrayed us. He snitched on Constance and I. How could he do that to me? To his sister? To his family. What would make him turn on us? Because the children are coming back? And without him... they don't?

What kind of sick man uses children as blackmail? It hurt me to my very core that Konrad could use Sophia as a weapon. She was so young, so innocent. But maybe that's why she was easy to corrupt. Because when you have no scars, it's easy to get hurt. My family taught me that at a young age.

I looked over at Colin and Sophia. He was holding her in his arms. He wore no jacket, he had no warmth to offer her. He was... dead. He was a vampire, cold with no heartbeat. Or at least I suspected. I couldn't actually feel the cold or the warmth.

I opened my arms. "Here... let me hold her."

Colin looked up slowly through his hair that was beginning to get too long. "Everly, I don't want to give her up."

"You'll be giving her up to hypothermia in a second. You're a vampire, Colin. You don't have any warmth." I wasn't trying to sound mean, but it came out that way.

He took a deep breath and realized that what I was saying was the truth. He handed Sophia over to me and I bundled her up to my chest.

"So... all vampires are dead right?" I asked, watching Sophia as she quietly fell asleep in my lap. She was so tired, so sad. It fueled my fight against Konrad even more. It wasn't just her. There were so many people Konrad had trapped— so many children.

Colin scooted closer to me, holding his knees to his chest. "Yeah, why?"

I rubbed Sophia's arms up and down, trying to bring some color to her pale skin. "Well... that means you're dead. How did it happen? How come you didn't just become a Salem Of The Old Witch?"

There were more questions in my heart. How did you not know your sister was one of the most powerful beings on the planet? How did you not know your grandfather was the worst person on Earth? Are you okay? How are you holding up after saving your sister from a mad-man?

He bit his lip, uncomfortable by my question. He cleared his throat and pulled his shirt down to show his neck. "You can't see it unless you know it's there. Magic. Great, isn't it?"

I looked at him but I couldn't find what he wanted me to see. But... that was the point.

"My dad he uh... he cut my throat after biting me. I never asked why he bit me. But... yeah... if you're born a vampire, you're technically human even after 19 until you die. My dad didn't want me to be a human in this world until I died so he..." He trailed off and rubbed his neck. "My mom screamed at him because there's so many less painful ways to die."