“I’m a Debrek. I was born a Debrek,” Victorija insisted.

“You’ll never be one of them. You’re too much like me. You have a dark soul. Drink.”

In an instant, Victorija charged over to the woman, knocked her to the ground, and began to drink feverishly from her neck.

Then all the players in this tragedy disappeared. Daisy fell to her knees on the grass. Tears streamed down her face. “Why did you show me this?”

Lucia said. “Because I need you, we need you. Come and sit.”

* * *

Daisy was traumatized by what she had just seen, and she was angry. She turned to Lucia and said, “Why did you all not do anything to help Victorija? She was a sensitive, tortured soul, and you Debreks just left her with that monster Gilbert, and he created another monster.”

“Your anger is justified, Daisy. That’s why I want to help her. Gilbert was my son, and he was always a jealous, dark soul, but I never thought he’d kill his bonded wife, or force his daughter to turn.”

Daisy shook her head. “You should have helped her.”

It was so strange to feel empathy and sorrow for someone like Victorija.

“My only excuse is that I didn’t know this incident happened, Daisy. I didn’t know till shortly before I died. Angele came to me, much like you, and showed me the light.”

“Amelia said you walked willingly to your death. That you knew Victorija would kill you, and you could have stopped it,” Daisy said.

“I did walk willingly—that is the only way you can get forgiveness. I’d lived an extremely long and privileged life. I’d passed on the Debrek clan to Byron and Amelia. Sera, I knew, would have Byron and Bhaltair to take care of her, but my biggest regret was Victorija. In the months before I died, Angele came to me and begged me to bring Victorija’s pain to an end. She showed me what happened here, how Victorija’s love was killed and Victorija forcibly turned. I vowed to Angele I would help Victorija find you and give her a chance to change her life.”

“Just because she has reasons why the darkness overtook her, she still made those decisions and killed those people. You can’t just be forgiven.” Daisy wiped away her tears.

“You have to face what you have done, and then your forgiveness is in the hands of those you have wronged,” Lucia explained.

“Why me?”

“There was no one else. Angele told me that she was Victorija’s beginning, and you would be her end.”

“What? Like, kill her? I don’t think—”

“No—well, in a way. Kill the Victorija that is, and bring back to life the Torija that Angele loved,” Lucia said.

“I don’t know how I could possibly do that.”