I stared down at the knife buried deep in Viktor’s chest, his blood dripping to the floor. He was panting for air and seemed to be about to lose consciousness. As much as I wanted to help him, I felt like my body wouldn’t let me move. My knees shook uncontrollably as I stared at Viktor's wound. I felt like any moment he could slip away from me. What could I do? My mind raced as I tried to figure out what could've happened. How did he get stabbed? Who did this to him? Was it a hunter sent by Queen Naran? Before I could think further, Viktor's breathing became even more laboured and he started coughing up blood. What if he died? I could not stand the thought of it.

Finally, I mustered up the courage to remove the knife from his chest. I was terrified of hurting him even more, but I had to do something. Carefully, I grabbed the handle and pulled it out of Viktor as he groaned in pain. I ripped off a piece of my dress and placed it on the wound in an effort to stop the bleeding.

“What happened?” I asked him as I pressed against the wound. He groaned in pain.

“The prostitute misunderstood what I meant when I said I would take her blood,” he grunted as I eased him to the ground and laid him down. “I think I scared her.”

I sighed with relief that it wasn't an assassin from Queen Naran's court. I looked at Viktor's handsome face. Even as he lay bleeding before me, he was pitying the woman who stabbed him. At that moment, I felt a swell of love for this man, love for the compassion that he was sometimes capable of displaying. Most people would probably wish to curse this woman, but he felt pity.

“You’ll be okay,” I said to him. “I promise. I won’t let you die.” I spoke with hope in an attempt to convince both of us that all would be well.

I didn’t know just how long I sat there before the bleeding stopped, but when I noticed his breathing slowly beginning to return to normal, I pulled back the cloth to see that the wound had clotted.

“Thank you,” he murmured, and his weak voice held a note of profound appreciation. Seeing the man who snapped a woman’s neck with ease to save my life so weak and feeble didn’t sit right with me. “You need blood,” I said to him.

“I will go hunting tomorrow,” he retorted. “I can’t right now.”

“Drink my blood,” I said, full of determination.

Viktor glared at me with a look of disbelief, like I was deranged. His jaw clenched and a vein in his neck pulsed.

“No”, he replied, gritting his teeth.

“Viktor,” I said, beginning to get angry. “This isn’t a game.”

“You’re weak,” he protested. “I will not make you any weaker.”

“You’re weaker than I am,” I told him. “It will heal you," I insisted.

I looked into Viktor's pale blue eyes as he remained silent. Without hesitation, I put my wrist to his mouth but  he quickly shook his head and refused me again, turning away from me and shutting himself off from the conversation entirely. In a voice devoid of emotion he said “Stop” and became unresponsive.

My heart sank as I realised that no matter how hard I tried, Viktor was determined not to accept my offer of help; even if it meant dying in the process. The man was so stubborn! I knew that once he had made up his mind about something it would be damn near impossible to change it.

Then suddenly it dawned on me that I had some remaining bottle of human blood tucked away in the cave. So I did the only thing that I could do; I fetched the spare, stale human blood that I had left from the night prior, and I brought it back to where Viktor lay.

“You drink it,” he said to me as he saw me approach with the bottle.

“No,” I insisted. “You drink it. Now.” I was stern, indicating that I was willing to put up a fight, and he finally complied, draining the bottle of its contents as I made him drink all the blood.

After finishing, he sat upright and made eye contact with me. He already appeared much healthier. Then, he did something that I wasn’t expecting; he leaned forwards and kissed me.

Initially, I was stunned; surprise and shock that he would do such a thing after all of the resistance that he had put up against me was what I first felt. However, as the kiss progressed, I melted into his embrace, kissing him back. The blood tasted stale, but I kissed him anyway, feeling a euphoric high from doing so. When he finally pulled away, I felt disappointed.

“Thank you,” he said to me once more.

I silently agreed. Did he only kiss me to share some of the blood with me? I started to feel relaxed when I heard the sound of footsteps echoing from the darkness behind us. Fear gripped me as I turned around and saw a figure standing by the cave’s entrance. I sprung to my feet, and Viktor’s head turned sharply to face whomever our visitor was...

Then the figure gave a few steps towards our fire, and Raoul's features were revealed. I sighed in relief; as my first instinct was to assume that it was Naran or one of her subjects. My relief, however, was short-lived.

“I got a letter from Queen Naran,” Raoul said grimly. Viktor stiffened at my feet, and so did I. This could not be good; news with concern to Naran was never good. “One of their men found me and forced me to deliver it... It's addressed to Lucy.”

I slowly approached him, my body tense, and he handed me an envelope that I opened with trembling hands. My heart raced as I read the letter and my vision blurred, feeling like my entire body was about to collapse. They asked what it said but I was too stunned to reply. Raoul stepped in and took the paper from me, reading its contents aloud to Viktor.

“To Lucy Volkov,

Due to gross disobedience of the law, you are to surrender yourself to be beheaded at once. As a measure to ensure you will capitulate, know that my loyal servant Dario has confined James, your former fiancé, to the Hotel La Roche in Paris. Should you refuse to surrender, James shall take your place. If you continually refuse to cooperate, we shall begin to behead the members of your family one by one, until we find you. First, it will be your father. Then your older sister, then the youngest. I'm pretty sure by now you get the idea.

I wish you a pleasant day.

Yours truly,

Queen Naran.”

“Infernal woman...” Viktor snarled. “She hasn't changed!” Viktor went on to talk about exactly what he would have liked to do to Naran, but I wasn’t listening. No, I was panicking, and it was at that point that I realised I really and truly didn’t want to die. All the time that I had spent pitying myself and hating Viktor was for nought; it sometimes took a situation such as this one to really appreciate one’s life. And now, I wished more than ever that I had gotten the chance to truly appreciate my marriage with him, for the little time that we’d had together.

Was this how my life would end? My second life? Decapitated by a vengeful queen? I was afraid; fear was perhaps my strongest emotion. However, I also felt a rush of anger towards Naran. She didn’t have to involve James nor my family! Using a relatively innocent man as a hostage and demanding that I pay ransom in the form of my life was beyond cruel; to call it evil would be a euphemism.

I remembered my father and my beautiful sisters, who I cherished more than anything in the world. I knew that Naran would carry through with her threats and hurt them if I didn’t surrender. It was an impossible choice; no matter what decision I made, someone would have to pay the price with their life.

I definitely did not want to die. However, I couldn’t just let James die either. What could I do, if not surrender? Did I deserve to be saved instead of James? I knew it was wrong and yet... Should I really die for him? He had hurt me after all. He had caused me a lot of pain and despair when he left me at the altar. And yet, once I had been deeply in love with him. There was no reason to let him perish. It could have been argued that I should have died the night Eponine stabbed me. I didn’t deserve to die, but I should have. I was living on extra time, anyway. Extra time that I didn’t want to sacrifice.

I didn’t know what to do! I was so conflicted, my mind warring with itself as to whether or not I should sacrifice myself for my cheating former fiancé who broke my heart that I began to weep. I wept for James, for my family, and admittedly, for myself. Even as Viktor embraced me in an attempt to console me, I wept.

“It’s not fair,” I complained to him. Truthfully, none of this was fair. But what could I do?

“Come back to Baba's cabin,” Raoul said to me. “You can make your decision there.”

Nodding my head, I decided to comply; Viktor and I followed him out of the cave and into the night.