A/N: Sorry for disappearing for a while there. I know some of you want me to update my other stories more so than this one, but I'm still trying to figure out just what it is I want to do with those stories as far as progression. I don't want to give any of you a bad chapter and I have wrote (and even finished) new chapters for a few stories, but they didn't sit well with me. I guess I've been in a bad case of writers block right now, and I apologize for that guys. x.x So I've been taking a breather by reading other stories and actually watching tv. All I can really say is that when I do post new chapters to my other stories I want them to be worth the wait and I hope you all feel that way when I do. Thanks for your patience and I hope you all enjoy this chapter. (:

Consciousness returned to me, my eyes still closed.

The smell of burning and death was loud in my nose, and I was confused as to why it was.

I was also confused as to why the ground beneath me was hard yet soft, and I opened my eyes reality returning to me in a second.

My castle…my home...was gone, and I was laying on the ground close to the destruction. The fire pretty much ebbed out at this point.

Tears began falling from my eyes again as I looked at the remains from where I lay. Were there any survivors? I didn't know. All I knew was that I had—

I jolted upright, finding Arnold gone, a wail at finding this true stuck in my throat. Bile still coated my tongue and I felt sick again immediately. I didn't want to be alone. I never wanted to be alone. The thought made me feel claustrophobic, and I felt more trapped by that notion than I had by living in the castle. I shivered, still crying. Arnold, I told myself, before grievance fully numbed me. I had to try and find Arnold.

I stood up on shaky legs, ignoring the remnants of the castle. I didn't want to break down again. Maybe...maybe Arnold had went to help any survivors.

If there were any survivors.

My throat closed up. Why would anyone do such a despicable thing? I wanted to cry and cry and cry, but that wouldn't do me any bit of good. Not right now.

Right now I had to try and find Arnold.

I walked along, not really paying attention to where I was going. Avoiding the dreaded sight was my main objective. I could feel another wave of sickness come on, but I ignored it. I had to be strong right now for myself, and I wanted to be of help in some way, but the stench of the dead was a huge reminder of what was true. No matter how I wanted to be ignorant, the situation was now bigger than that, but I couldn't come to terms with the truth. Not right now. Maybe never. I clenched my hands into shaky fists and did my best to hold it together.

"Hello, Princess," A voice, I recognized all too well at this point said. La Sombra.

"You." I said, turning and narrowing my eyes. "Did you do this?" I motioned with my arm in the direction of the massacre. He smiled.

"If I did?" His eyes taunted me. He portrayed everything, but remorse.

"I'll kill you." I spat out; hate overriding the grief within me at seeing his face. At seeing his...casualness to the death of untold many. He continued to smile.

"I think that's a little too dark for you Princess. I really don't think you have it in you. You see, it makes it easier to murder when you care so little about the lives you take, or in my case when you find enjoyment in hearing the lives you take beg you for mercy." He smiled darkly at me. "Your parents and sister in general were really trying to appeal to my better nature, but to do that I would have to have one in the first place."

That comment alone, had me lashing out at someone with my power for the first time. Before that I had never used my fire for violence, but I never wanted anyone dead as much as I wanted him to be right at that moment. He dodged my fireballs easily and I cursed my lack of practice and that inner voice in me that said killing was wrong. It made my aim sloppy, and I hit more forest than I wanted to. What else could I lose though? I had already lost my family to this…monster.

"Stay away from me!" I shouted as he moved closer to me, still dodging my weak attacks.

"Now, now, you're not free from blame," he said. "You knew I'd hurt you the best way I knew how. How dare you try to kill the messenger?"

"How dare you say that I'm to blame?" I asked, tears stinging my eyesight. Was I? No, that's just what he wanted me to think, but if I had married him, they would still be alive. He had threatened my Kingdom and honored his sick and twisted promise. My stomach churned.

"You are and you know it," he whispered somewhere close to my ear. I turned and released a wave of fire from my hands. I had never made one so big in my life, and it consumed a lot more energy than I expected. My breathing was slowly becoming labored. I never expended so much at one period of time like this. I was beginning to feel exhausted.

"Missed me again." And I turned aiming for his voice. "Oh, come, come you can do better than that." He said, again in a different location.

I barely registered that the forest around me was burning. My breathing was now fast and shallow. I couldn't find him anywhere, and began walking again, wondering where he had gone. He would pay for all the lives he had took. Even if it took my last breath to make it happen.

I eventually found him casually leaning back against a tree. His cape blew in the wind, his face a mask of arrogance, his hair and cheek stubble making him look roguish. This was the man I hated with every fiber of my being. If my secret ever had any purpose it would be to make sure I took his life the same way he had taken my family's.

I walked closer to him until I was standing directly in front of him. I masked my face from all of the emotions I was feeling. This man thrived on each I supplied to him. I would give him no more satisfaction.

"Do you still plan to take my life, Princess?" He whispered, moving his face just a bit closer to mine. "Do you hate me enough to take my life away? Or are you all talk?"

I didn't say anything. My hair was flying in front of my eyes, but I ignored it.

"Oh, do you need more motivation?" He asked, sounding gleeful. "Perhaps this will help. That bodyguard of yours? Let's just say, since he was so close to you, I made sure he suffered...rightfully." He smirked.

"What did you do to him?" I asked, my eyes widening. I gripped him by the collar of his shirt and made a fireball in the other. "What did you do?"

He never answered, at that moment a group of what looked to be surviving villagers made their way through the forest and turned to look at us. Their jaws dropped as they took in the scene before them.

"Princess…is that you? What…?" One asked, but never finished his thought. Fear was evident in all of their eyes. Fear while staring at me. Illness was becoming a new thing with me, and I felt it wash over me again in that instance.

La Sombra took my distraction as his gain and flung my hand off of him, running towards the villagers in an ungraceful manner which he held at all times before that moment. He fell on the ground before them, gripping one of their pants legs. "Help me. She…she tried to kill me too." He turned and looked at me with sheer horror in his eyes. Wait, what?

They all looked at me with different expressions I couldn't handle, but mostly there was...hatred. No…I didn't…

"Wait! Don't listen to him," I cried, begging as they moved back a little. "He killed my parents!"

"Who's the one who can control fire?" He asked them sounding afraid, and pointing a shaky finger at me. "Who's the one who had access to the inside? Look at the fire around us! Who but she could do this? You saw it right? What she can do? She killed them, and tried to kill me too since I knew too much." My world began to feel dizzy. Was this all really happening? His last words kicked me straight into the gut. "I told you there was a witch in your midst and it's, it's her."

I turned, covering my ears, and ran not wanting to hear any more lies. I couldn't hurt the villagers just to get at him. I ran until my legs were sore and the stench of dead bodies and burning forest was no more, then I collapsed, and banged my hands over and over on the ground until they were numb from the pain inflicted on them.

My family was dead. Arnold was dead too, and the villagers hated me.

"I really am truly alone," I whispered into the wind, and I began to cry.

A/N: End of Part 1