Chapter Eight

                                    

                                          
Sunlight shined through the dusty windows of the Château. It was early morning and many of the children were asleep. The sound of glass bottles clinking and a voice grumbling filled the girl's ear. She rolled over and squeezed her eyes in hopes of somehow making the sound go away. 
She frowned when the sound continued. It was steadily working her nerves. She groaned and sat up, looking for the offending noise. 
Her eyes quickly found her brother. He was standing at a desk, mixing chemicals and grumbling to himself, "Lucas, what are you doing?" she stared at him. 
"I couldn't sleep," he looked down at the glass bottles, "I thought doing this was better than staying up all night."
She couldn't be upset with him, he had seen more than anyone should at his age. Her mind drifted to the sea of bodies, that sight must have done something to him.
Y/N's eyes softened. "I understand that things have been rough," she sighed, "but we need to keep taking care of ourselves. You need sleep to function," she warned him. 
A comfortable silence fell over the two siblings. The girl felt bad that her brother saw so many traumatizing things. She had worked so hard to keep him safe and she couldn't even do that. She started to think about Mellie's words. 
What is she going to do when they find the castle? 
Then an even bigger question came to her mind, why would Lucas want to help the De Rune siblings? Yes, Laurentius wanted him to take them to the castle but it seemed as if there was something more.
It had to be. 
"Lucas, why did Laurentius ask you to take Hugo and Amicia to this castle? Why didn't he just ask you to point them in the right direction?"
Lucas stared at the floor, his sister patiently waiting for his answer, and after a few minutes he slowly looked up.
He had a look on his face, the look of a boy who was hiding something. 
"Lucas," she crossed her arm and looked at him with a frown. 
"Hugo..." he avoided her piercing gaze, "he has a condition. A very special one." He said slowly.
She frowned at him, "What is his condition?"
Hugo seemed like a normal boy to her. 
"He has the Prima Macula, it's a special case. It's a serious illness and Laurentius put me in charge of finding the cure," he explained with a strained smile. 
Y/N's first instinct was to be upset, her brother had kept something so important from her. How was she supposed to protect him when she didn't even know what he was doing? She didn't let her anger show on her face, instead, she decided to be understanding. 
"Lucas, I want you to be open about these things," she explained to him with a calm expression, "I don't want you getting hurt." 
She sighed before laying back down in bed and drifting off to sleep before Lucas could reply. She hoped in the future he would value her wish and he more open with her.
The sound of a mini-explosion woke her up from her light sleep. She sat up and looked over at Lucas. He was standing next to a bottle that was bellowing green smoke, he looked at her bashfully.
Y/N huffed before standing up and walking out of the room if she couldn't sleep then she should at least try to make herself useful. 
She found Amicia in the garden watching over Hugo. "Amicia," she greeted the other girl. 
The brunette turned away from her brother to look at Y/N, "Yes?"
She stood next to Amicia, "I want to thank you for looking after Lucas," she smiled sadly at the other girl, "I don't know what I would do without him."
Amicia smiled back at her, "It's no problem," she looked back at Hugo, "I just hope your brother can help us move past this." 
Amicia and Y/N silently watched as Hugo chased and played with butterflies, oblivious to the chaos that reigned outside of the castle walls. But maybe it was better that way, better for him not to know. She wished her brother could live in such ignorance. 
"Amicia!" 
The two girls turned to look at Lucas. 
He leaned in and whispered, "It's about Hugo."
Amicia's eyes widened, "What about Hugo?"
Lucas glanced over at said boy, "He's approaching the first threshold."
The brunette frowned, "What can you do to stop it?"
"I thought the castle would have it but it doesn't," he hastily explained, "I don't know what I can do."
"What's wrong with the first threshold?" Y/N asked him.
"There is a possibility Hugo could die," his eyes widened, "I think I have a solution. We need a book called the Sanguinis Itinera. 
"I remember Laurentius talking about it. I can use the book to slow the effects of the threshold until we can find the cure," he clarified.
Lucas gave Amicia directions to the book, follow the path of roses. With the conversation concluded, Amicia went over to talk to Hugo. 
Lucas looked over at Y/N with a sincere look in his eye. "I'm sorry for not telling you about the Prima Macula and everything else," he sighed, "I didn't know how to tell you."
"Just promise to let me in your head sometimes," she glanced at the sky, "we are all we have and I don't want to lose you tpp."
"I promise."