Sunlight

Fire

Time stood still. Every pair of eyes in the room, bar Cleia's, still at the mercy of Alec, watched the detached head blink. An ornate grandfather clock punctuated the silence.

After seven heavy ticks, Alec made the first move. The kid dropped his hands, and following the instruction of its creator, the mist dispersed. Cleia collapsed to the ground as her senses rushed back to her. Light burned her eyes, and white noise stung her ears. The stone was coarse like sandpaper against her palms. She spluttered like a human. Everyone ignored her.

When her eyes were able to refocus, they searched the room for one thing. First, they found a statuesque Marcus. He was smiling. She called out for her love just as her eyes came to rest on the scene before her. "Caius?"

The blonde stared down at the head at her feet. She still held his collar tightly in her hand, holding the headless body suspended in the air. Aro blinked. Athenadora choked on her words, barely stifling a wail. No thought had passed through her mind—she'd walked in and she'd reacted. Her mind was only now catching up with her body. "I—" the queen croaked. "I'm so sorry."

Cleia's voice hadn't been enough to wake him from his limbo. Cleia's voice alone breaking the silence had only convinced him he was in the afterlife. Athenadora's voice joining that of his love's in the air catapulted Caius back down to Earth. He crashed back into reality and took in the crater forming around him.

In a second, Caius was on his feet. "Nobody move!" he yelled, flicking from each witness's eyes to the next. Everyone did as the general ordered.

"Caius, I am so sorry," Athenadora began to cry, panic setting in.

"No, stop," he cooed, trying to keep his train of a wife on the tracks. "Dora, be calm."

"No, no, no," she stammered, finally letting the headless corpse drop from her grasp. She jumped away from it like it may extend an arm and grab her back. Cleia's senses had troubleshot and were back at full force. Her mind quickly followed. "I'm sorry!" Dora yelled. "I'm sor—"

Before the next scream came her husband's hand was gagging her, stopping any noise from leaving her. With his lips to her ear, he made his order: "Dora, be calm," he repeated with gravity in his voice. "Don't make a noise. Don't move." He didn't need to say it twice. High stakes suited the new leader. "Cleia," he moved on to the next order of business, "The twins." It was the instruction she had been awaiting, and her commands left her lips swiftly and forcefully. "Secure the room," he said to Felix and Demetri. The soldiers followed their sergeant's order with all the haste of a squad in fired-upon trenches. "Marcus," Caius moved on to the final, untasked accessory, "Start a fire."