Niiya watched Adrianna in horror. He shoved his blanket and rushed to pick Pryce who was lying on the floor, crippled and in tremendous pain. For a human this kind of torture would kill her. However, he couldn't cross the wall created by Haldir. He looked at Haldir with pleading eyes. The wall was lowered.

Upon reaching her, Niiya raised her body and placed her on his lap. Then he looked at Adrianna and said in a heated voice, "Have you gone insane? Get out of this place! For once I found happiness and you want to take that away from me? I can't even fathom that you could be so vicious. You are always after my happiness. Can't you let me be happy for once!" Niiya's eyes were red.

​​

"Stay away Niiya!" Adrianna growled. "You don't know what she has done."

"Pryce is a human and what could a human do to a wizard like you?" he lamented. His heart was breaking inside upon seeing Pryce in so much pain. He hated Adrianna this time.

"Speak the truth Pryce and tell Niiya about your sinister plans before I kill you with my own hands," Adrianna said with loathe.

Pryce winced in pain and cried. "What have I done to you Adrianna? All I have ever wanted was Niiya. Ever since the college days you've been like this—vindictive. You always wanted bad things for me and you insulted me so often. But I gulped down those insinuations. You are jealous that Niiya is now interested in me. You are way out of line now," she rasped now that Niiya could hear her. "You think-"

Adrianna narrowed her eyes at the nonsense she spouted. So she simply put a truth spell on her.

Before Pryce realized, she continued to say, "You think that I am interested in Niiya. I am only interested in using him. He is spineless. It was so easy to entice him. He was desperate for your love but with me, he forgot about you when I offered myself completely to him." Pryce's eyes bulged at what she was speaking. She looked at Niiya with shock on her face as Niiya stared right back at her.

"Speak," he said in a jarring voice.

Pryce closed her mouth. She shook her head and pointed at Adrianna, "S- she is v- vi-." Pryce couldn't speak any further. Her tongue refused to lie.

"Speak or your tongue will shed," Adrianna looked at her with so much animosity that she trembled.

Out of fear she started to speak, "I needed Niiya so that no one could raise suspicions on our cult's activity. With him in my grasp, no other realm could question us. I was given this task by the cult's head, old priest, Haephus. But the day our Master came, he killed Haephus. After that his energy became very low. But he will become strong within a few hours. Lenny is there with him," Pryce started to laugh feeling joyous.

"Lenny is now in the wizard prison," Adrianna said.

Pryce looked at her with wide eyes. "Doesn't matter. Our purpose will be fulfilled! Provbis!"

Niiya's breath became shaky. His mind refused to believe what Pryce just said. She played him. He had a sudden heavy feeling that expanded to his core. He left her and with a numb mind walked out of the room. Before closing the door, he looked at Adrianna and said, "Kill her." He closed the door and walked outside—alone in the street. It was a cold night, but he didn't feel it because of the rage cruising through in his body and the numbness in his mind. With Adrianna it was different—he had not had physical intimation with her, but Pryce… her connivance bore like drill in his heart. He had given up himself to her completely, no questions asked – and this is what she did. He walked away to wherever his feet took him. There was no direction, there was no hope, only loneliness, darkness that gnawed his soul.

Adrianna had already entered Pryce's cell when she had cast the truth spell on her and found out about the seven humans besides her who were part of the cult. There were five wizards and two werewolves. She was not shocked when she came to know about the wizards, but the two werewolves dismayed her. After what Dmitri had done for the all the packs, there were two who were so much against him. But she couldn't say much, because they were none other than two members of the Red Moon Pack, which she belonged to – Uncle Claus and Meina. Meina was Reinjie's girlfriend and Uncle Claus was the same man whose Rufus tried to attack her.

Pryce shouted behind Niiya, "You unfaithful arrogant bastard. How dare you leave me alone?"

That was more than enough for Adrianna. She brought her wand forward and hissed, "Cutica Igniesis!"

A flame blazed near the foot of Pryce's leg that was fractured. Slowly it crept over her body like a snake coiling around its prey. She tried to lift the foot, but the unbearable pain made her cry loud. The orange flame made its way up. It slowly devoured the skin it came in contact with. It looked as if the flames had developed jaws for they gnawed her skin like a critter who enjoyed its fresh meat. The flame was eating only the dermis leaving the burnt flesh underneath and it was doing so lazily. It coiled and coiled and coiled like a snake and Pryce shrieked in trauma.

"I won't take your life. But if you survive this, let this punishment forever remind you never to think of messing with people who are beyond you," said Adrianna in a heavy hateful voice.

Adrianna and Haldir left her and in the next fifteen minutes, all the humans were brought to the cottage where the cult had made sacrifices. Each of them was horror-struck when invisible forces took them out of their comfortable warm blankets, out of their homes to the cottage. At first they thought that it was their Master who had resurrected but later when white beams of lights tied them to the stakes, they were baffled.

"Who are you?" asked the priest's son. "Master, is that you?" He looked around in the darkness that had swallowed the surroundings. "Why are you tying us Master? Do you need more power? What do you want to do?"

"Yes, Master. We can chant for you. Do you want to create any spell?" came a soft voice of a woman. "We can help you?"

In the dim lights, one could see seven stakes similar to what they had created for sacrificing the werewolves. All of them were in one circle. They looked at each other, bewildered.

Suddenly Adrianna appeared in the center of the circle. The eyes of those tied bulged, their muscles stiffened involuntarily as they gaped at her in disbelief and terror. Some of them slipped over the logs beneath their feet. The two women started trembling.

"You!" shouted the priest's son. "Do you think you can kill us?" He swayed slightly but his voice was steady. "Wait till our Master will come and save us."

Adrianna conjured a ball of fire in between her palms while looking at him.