I lay there in bed watching my little witch, drinking in the sight of her lovely face relaxed in repose. I didn’t know if I would ever get to hold her and watch her this way again—in fact, I very much doubted it. I didn’t plan on getting any sleep tonight for we would be at the barrier between the sixth and seventh circles of Hell—between the Sunless Sea and the Abyss. And once we reached that critical juncture there were things that had to be done—things I abhorred. Things that would make Gwendolyn hate me forever. I stroked a strand of hair out of her face and tucked it carefully behind her ear. I didn’t want to betray her but I had no choice. The matter of the Mirror of the Eye last night had made some things very clear to me. One was that I cared more deeply for Gwendolyn than I had ever cared for anyone before. You might even say that I loved her if I was capable of such an emotion. The second thing that had been made clear to me was that Gwendolyn did not feel the same for me.
