- Haven’t seen you for a long time... - said Ivrim, removing his hand from the girl’s head and breaking into a soft smile. - Artemis.

The deepest silence reigned in the room, and only Raphael’s heart squeezed like a stone in his chest, hitting hard inside his chest. He could feel the blood rushing to his ears, trying to compete with his own pulse.

It seemed that everything happened in a short period of time, but he managed to build a whole chain of logically connected details in his head, which he refused to believe.

What the fuck was going on now?

He grinned to himself, and his eyes were bloodshot.

It was impossible! If only... Did the Artemis artifact have anything to do with all this?

The princess looked at the elf as if hypnotized, not realizing her place, before her mind gradually began to come to life, and she hurriedly turned towards the vampire.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks, heavy, copious, unrestrained... painful.

Her lips trembled as if they didn’t belong to her.

- I suppose it’s a wonderful reunion? - Ivrim asked, slightly bowing his head, putting his hand on the girl’s shoulder. – A little shocking, isn’t it?

The last words left his lips with a modest laugh.

- What does all this mean? Where’s my daughter?

The elf just shook his head, as if it was all hopeless.

The girl did not react to the king’s words. She still couldn’t believe her eyes, as if all this time she had been locked in a dungeon without windows and doors alone and only now could she feel freedom.

- Raphael. - she whispered with trembling lips and stretched out her hand in his direction. – My husband.

Clenching his hands into fists and teeth until his jaw ached, he did not accept her hands. Could not. Couldn’t move, couldn’t believe, couldn’t justify what his eyes were seeing.

Thick, long, with soft wavy hair, went down to the girl’s waist. They were exactly the same as Raphael remembered them and as if he still felt the silkiness of these hairs under his fingers.

If it was some kind of hoax, it was too plausible.

- It can’t be you. - barely moving his lips, he whispered, still looking grimly discouraged.

- But it’s me. - Artemis tried to force a smile, but only sobbed once again, feeling the sting of the fact that he did not rush into her arms and did not accept her hands.

- I saw your death with my own eyes. Fuck it, I saw your ashes with my own eyes. - he fumed, shaking his head frantically. - You’re not going to make me believe that.

An angry growl escaped from Raphael’s throat and his deadly gaze turned to the elf king.

The elf waved his hand in the air, stopping Horel and Terrence’s attempt to create a magical trap in the office so that no one could escape from here. But the ease with which Ivrim stopped this attempt was frightening.

Everyone present was familiar with the stories of the great elves, who were as powerful as the race of wizards, but no one alive had ever met them face to face.

Ivrim waved his index finger in the air.

- Do not do anything that will entail consequences. – he warned calmly. – I’m not here to sort out your internal problems.

The werewolves, surrounded on all sides, were alert and too tense to distract their attention for even a second.

Adeline, on the other hand, stood aside and watched with horror as her friend turned into a completely different, unfamiliar person in an instant. She wanted to know what was going on, but the overwhelming power coming from the elf and the vampire scared her too much.

- Where’s Thea? - Raphael growled.

His mouth bared, his fangs lengthened, and the aura around him became too heavy and oppressive.

- She’s safe. - Artemis answered instead of the elf, still trying to cope with her own emotions. – I didn’t do anything wrong to her, we just switched places with her.

- Changed places? How is that? - Raphael asked sharply.

- Maybe we can discuss this in private? I’m a little nervous. – she said, looking at Raphael’s hostile allies.

Artemis spent almost two decades in Thea’s body, she was her mind, her inner sixth sense, her guiding star. She knew everything that was going on in Thea’s life, since her eyes were also the eyes of Artemis. And she regarded Thea’s friends as her own, but now they looked at her as an enemy, they did not know her, did not love her. She could understand that.

- I would advise you to postpone your conversations until we get to Eriad. – the elf intervened and addressed the following words to Raphael. - I wasn’t planning on inviting you to my house, but I guess I don’t have any other choice right now.

Ivrim looked around the room, catching on to Horel.

- It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other, great king of magicians. - he spoke deliberately formally and with due respect. – You have made a huge contribution to your daughter’s future and yet I see that you want to ask me something besides what happened to the princess.

- Is it true that you erased my memories? - Horel asked incredulously, and Ivrim nodded.

- Really. But, looking ahead, I will say that there was nothing significant there, because of which you should return your memory back. You can already see that your daughter is something more than a simple magician with limited magical abilities. You wanted to protect her secret and you succeeded. You’re a good father. – stated the elf. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

- As a good father, I can’t let you go wherever you’re planning before I figure out what’s going on. – he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The elf exhaled sharply and frowned.

- I sent her mind to rest. Locked her in Artemis’s head, just as it had been with Artemis herself for a long time. - The elf commented.

- But this is my daughter’s body. -The king shouted.

- And it remains so. - Ivrim agreed.

- I don’t understand. I don’t understand at all. - Horel shouted.

- - Okay, I’ll explain. When your wife had a miscarriage, the child in the womb eagerly clung to life, calling on all the forces that could help him survive. The tiny lump in Catherine’s womb was so strong that it was able to summon her. And the soul of Artemis, imprisoned...

- The Crown of Artemis... - Raphael said dryly, something was beginning to sink in.

- That’s right. The particles of Artemis’s soul, encased in a crown, heard this call for help and was attracted by it. Since the crown was created by the hands of elves, it was not just an object adorning the heads of kings, but also had a full connection with its owner. And so it turned out that having died physically, a part of Artemis’s soul was forever imprinted in this piece of precious metal and was just waiting for the moment to be reborn again.